How €2trn EU public tendering pushes 'race to the bottom' for labour standards

Around €2 trillion is spent each year on the award of public contracts, generally linked to the service sector — that's 13 percent of the EU's GDP.

Yet before Covid-19, half of tenders in Europe were being awarded simply based on a "most economically-advantageous" criteria, as recorded on the tenders' electronic daily (TED) database.

That approach ignores minimum working conditions, as some companies undercut workers' ...