The Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE project CE-PRINCE has officially published its benchmark deliverable – Deliverable D.2.2.2 – Circular Criteria Sets: Upgrade of existing green and circular criteria and guidelines for implementation and inclusion in public tenders.
The output establishes a unified, transnational framework designed to help public buyers across Central Europe move beyond traditional “green purchasing” towards genuine Circular Public Procurement (CPP), with a structured set of upgraded criteria, a circularity contribution scoring system and step-by-step guidance to support their selection, adaptation and integration into public tenders.
1. Closing the circularity gap
Public procurement accounts for around 14% of EU GDP, offering immense potential to drive circular markets and play a pivotal role in the EU’s green transition. However, a comparative baseline analysis (Deliverable D.2.2.1) conducted by CE-PRINCE partners across seven Central European countries revealed a major gap: while existing Green Public Procurement (GPP) frameworks effectively address environmental protection, energy efficiency and resource efficiency, they significantly lack provisions for advanced circular principles, such as product life extension, maintenance and repair, reverse logistics and take-back systems, value-retention mechanisms, performance-based procurement and circular business models.
A key insight underpins the whole deliverable: circularity and environmental sustainability do not coincide. A criterion can be environmentally meritorious: improving energy efficiency, air quality or biodiversity, without contributing to closing material loops. The CE-PRINCE criteria are designed to close precisely that gap.
To bridge it, the project partnership developed a set of upgraded circular criteria. The objective is not to replace national or European procurement frameworks, but to equip public procurers with flexible, practical guidance: indications, examples and good practices already implemented across partner countries, that can be progressively built into public tenders while respecting national legislation and market conditions.
For CE-PRINCE Project Manager Sara Piana of Regione Liguria, the value of this work lies not only in the results achieved, but also in its potential to remain useful well beyond the project itself:
“This work is one of the results we are most proud of in CE-PRINCE, because it represents a huge collective effort by the whole partnership. We started from a detailed analysis of what already exists across our countries, then worked together to identify the gaps, develop a common approach and build a shared database of upgraded circular criteria. Our ambition is that this work can live beyond the project and become a practical reference for procurement offices, helping them bring circular economy principles more concretely into their everyday purchasing decisions.”
2. Expert validation
To ensure the criteria sets are legally robust, market-ready and aligned with cutting-edge industry standards, the draft deliverable underwent a rigorous review by the CE-PRINCE Advisory Board – composed of leading European procurement experts, legal specialists and circular economy practitioners. Their insights enriched the methodology, refined verification clauses, and ensured the framework remains balanced, proportional and directly applicable across different national legislative environments.
As Dr Aleksandra Jadach-Sepiolo (Urban and Regional Development Research Institute), a member of the Advisory Board, highlighted:
“CE-PRINCE brings together national approaches to give public buyers a shared basis for selecting and adapting circular criteria. This cross-border learning is an important step towards more informed procurement decisions. The goal is not simply to express circular ambitions in tender documents, but to translate them into verifiable requirements and contractual commitments that deliver results in practice.”
3. Methodology: from a cross-country database to a priority score for every criterion
Developed through a collaborative, transnational process – with the circularity contribution scoring system designed by the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (SSSA) – the criteria are organised into a master cross-country database covering four priority economic sectors:
- Agrifood: such as reusable tableware and packaging, elimination of single-use plastics, food waste prevention and redistribution of surplus food, certified and organic sourcing, sustainable menus, low-emission logistics.
- Construction: such as circular and recycled materials, design for adaptability, longevity and future recovery, construction and demolition waste management, life-cycle assessment and costing, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), site environmental management.
- Manufacturing: such as durability and product longevity, maintenance, repair and refurbishment, spare part availability, take-back systems and reverse logistics, ecolabels, chemical and hazardous substance restrictions.
- Tourism-related goods and services: such as circular materials and event organisation, waste prevention and composting, water efficiency, low- and zero-emission vehicles and machinery, sustainable fuels and biodegradable consumables.
Each criterion is classified according to the four procurement categories of EU tendering: Selection Criteria (SC), Technical Specifications (TS), Award Criteria (AC) and Contract Performance Clauses (CC), so that procurers know exactly where and how a requirement can be used in a tender.
Every criterion also carries a scoring system from 1 to 5, assessing how directly it contributes to closing material loops, in line with the 10-R circular economy hierarchy (Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle, Recover) and consistent with the EU Circular Economy Action Plan and Article 13 of the EU Taxonomy Regulation. Criteria scoring 4 or 5 should be given particular consideration as they identify the highest circular dimension of a procurement procedure reflecting principles such as: mandatory recycled content, design for disassembly, take-back systems, waste prevention.
Nonetheless, the priority score should not be interpreted as a mandatory ranking. Rather, it serves as a practical decision support tool that helps public procurers identify criteria likely to deliver the greatest circular benefits while remaining proportionate to the procurement object, the maturity of the relevant market and the practical feasibility of implementation.
4. Practical guidance for public buyers
The deliverable includes a six-step implementation guide: identify the procurement object and circular objectives; select the relevant thematic cluster; select the appropriate upgraded criteria using the priority scores; adapt them to the national procurement framework; integrate them into the tender documentation; and monitor implementation to collect lessons learned.
Notably, the guidelines recommend including circular requirements primarily as award criteria wherever appropriate, rewarding suppliers that offer circular performance beyond minimum requirements, while technical specifications set baseline circularity requirements and contract performance clauses ensure circular commitments are honored during contract execution.
The full criteria set is available in the accompanying Excel public workbook, attached to the deliverable, and provides a practical reference for public authorities and contracting bodies wishing to strengthen circular dimension of their procurement procedures. The criteria can be selected and adapted according to the procurement object, applicable national framework, market conditions and verification requirements.
To make the framework even more accessible, a series of infographics presenting the criteria sets and their application in public tenders will be published at a later stage on the project website and social media channels.
5. What’s next: testing in real tenders
The Circular Criteria Sets will now be put to the test in real procurement procedures across the participating countries. The pilot phase will generate practical evidence on applicability across sectors and national contexts, and its results will feed into the further refinement of the criteria and the identification of transferable good practices.
Public procurers, suppliers and stakeholders interested in applying the criteria or following the pilots are invited to visit the project website and get in touch with the CE-PRINCE partnership.
Press contact:
Communication Manager
Emoke Takacs
Email: t.emoke@eri.net.in