On 29 January 2025, Thibault CHEVRIER, Lawyer and Partner at the law firm CHEVRIER & FAVARI, spoke at a training day organised in Luxembourg on socially responsible public procurement (SRPP).

Co-organised by AEIDL (European Association for Innovation in Local Development) and CESS GR (Cluster Économie Sociale et Solidaire Grande Région) and with the support of the Ministry of Labour, Department of the Social and Solidarity Economy and FEDAS (Federation of Actors in the Social Sector in Luxembourg), this day brought together nearly fifty people, mainly contracting authorities and actors in the social and circular economy in Luxembourg.

Through interventions carried out in pairs with Maître Jean-François JAMINET, a lawyer at the Liège Bar and specialist in public procurement, the Luxembourg legal framework was presented in order to better identify the possibilities of promoting socially responsible purchasing.

This introduction continued with practical cases focusing on examples of selection criteria and award criteria enabling a contracting authority to reserve or favour operators who are part of this societal approach.

The possibilities of limiting participation to sheltered workshops or measures to limit participation to societal impact companies were analysed.

This suffix is given to companies that have obtained ministerial approval on the basis of the Luxembourg law of 12 December 2016 establishing societal impact companies, and is subject to a number of conditions, including:

• The composition of its capital with at least 50% impact shares, defined as not “allowing their holders to benefit from the profits generated by the company.“

• Have as their goal:
• “to provide, through their activity, support to people in vulnerable situations, either because of their economic or social situation, or because of their personal situation and particularly their state of health or their need for social or medical-social support”, or
• “to contribute to the preservation and development of social ties, to the fight against exclusion and health, social, cultural and economic inequalities, to gender parity, to the maintenance and strengthening of territorial cohesion, to the protection of the environment, to the development of cultural or creative activities and to the development of initial or continuing training activities.“

Obtaining this accreditation not only firmly establishes your commitment to this sustainable development approach, but also allows you to participate in public procurement contracts that are reserved for companies that have obtained this accreditation.

This training day was also an opportunity to identify – and guard against – the risks associated with this approach:

• challenging the specifications
• appealing against the award decision
• the unsuccessful contract
• the overpriced social dimension
• poor execution of social clauses

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Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions relating to your objectives of promoting socially responsible purchasing and regarding public procurement law in Luxembourg.