Reorienting public procurement to serve our economic sovereignty and territorial resilience

In 2026, the European Commission will present a proposal to revise the rules governing public procurement. This reform will be decisive: it will set the criteria that will guide the awarding of public contracts and will have a direct impact on companies' ability to access them.

Public procurement is one of the most powerful levers available to France and the European Union for structuring their economic sovereignty, accelerating the ecological transition, and strengthening territorial cohesion. In France, it encompasses a considerable volume of purchases representing approximately 14% of French GDP, or nearly €400 billion per year. 

This scale makes public procurement a powerful economic and industrial policy tool, capable of having a lasting impact on the structure of the productive fabric. Used strategically, it can support the industrial sectors that are essential to our prosperity, stimulate innovation, boost local economic benefits, and promote businesses that contribute to the resilience of our regions.

Reorienting public procurement means transforming public spending into collective investment, capable of securing our value chains, reducing our dependence on imports, easing pressure on public budgets, and boosting local economies. 

The upcoming revision of European directives opens a window of opportunity to usher public procurement into a new era : that of a tool fully aligned with the Union's strategic priorities.

Impact France, with the support of the CJD Collectif Dirigeants Responsables network, the iDÉE association, BLAb, InterChanvre, Cleantech For France, Communauté des Entreprises à Mission, Rcube, Fédération des Industriels Engagés et Solidaires (FINDES), advocates for a more strategic, effective, and consistent use of public procurement, so that every euro spent strengthens the country's productive capacity, accelerates the transition to sustainability, and directly benefits local communities.

Impact France presents its proposals based on four fundamental principles:

• Include public procurement in a European strategy for economic and industrial sovereignty, assuming a European preference and local content requirements in critical sectors;
• Enhance the territorial impact of businesses by formally integrating positive externalities into the awarding and monitoring of contracts and by providing buyers with robust, shared tools to evaluate them.
• Strengthen the integration of environmental and social criteria in public procurement by generalizing environmental and social clauses, making these considerations a default principle, and rebalancing their importance in award decisions.
• Simplify access to public procurement for micro-enterprises, SMEs, and impact-driven companies by aligning procedures with the capacities and specificities of these actors and by structuring support for the upskilling of public purchasers and organizations.

Discover our position paper

Towards public procurement that meets the challenges and looks to the future

"While France announces more than €30 billion in investments to revive its industry, more than €400 billion in public procurement continues to elude France and Europe, trapped in an outdated mindset where only the lowest price counts. It is time to reorient our public procurement to support companies that manufacture in Europe, create local jobs, and contribute to the common good. The United States and China already use their public procurement as a lever of power. Europe must do the same if it wants to protect its industrial base, its businesses, and its know-how, and give visibility to the players who are already building a more resilient economy. Every public euro is a choice for society: a choice of sovereignty, impact, and territorial cohesion. Public procurement must become a strategic investment: let's finally align our purchasing rules with our collective ambition. 

Caroline Neyron, Managing Director of Impact France