Government as a socially-responsible market actor after RegioPost

We are pleased to welcome Professor Anne Davies (Brasenose College, University of Oxford) to this meeting of the LLDG, at which she will be presenting her paper on 'Government as a socially-responsible market actor after RegioPost'.

Abstract:

In this paper, I will argue that governments should have scope to use procurement as one tool among many for the achievement of social goals. I will briefly defend this position before offering an assessment of the capacity of governments to pursue social goals, and in particular labour law goals, through procurement, after the RegioPost decision and other relevant developments in EU law. I will then analyse the reasoning offered by the Court, comparing it with that of the Advocate General, and focusing in particular on two issues: the distinctiveness of the procurement context and the place of wage-setting (or minimum wage-setting) in socially-responsible procurement. Although the outcome in RegioPost is welcome, I will suggest that deficiencies in the underlying reasoning may cause problems in the future.