Social clauses in public procurement: new tools to promote local employment

Abstract

With this article we address the issue of the incorporation of social clauses in public procurement as new tools that enable public policies to promote employment, equal opportunities and the fight against social exclusion, mainly locally. It explains how the current legal framework contemplates incorporating various forms of social and environmental criteria in procurement specifications, both at the stage of admission, as assessment of tenders and execution conditions. It also discusses various experiences and good practices at regional level and at the local level, in order to explain and demonstrate the use of social clauses is fully legal, if properly applied, its only political will to implement them in public administration. One of the main conclusions is that it is an innovative tool that can give new impetus to employment policies and social inclusion, employability of groups excluded from the labor market as part of social policies to combat exclusion.