On behalf of the Procure IT Fair campaign SOMO has submitted a lobby letter to members of the Dutch parliament, urging them to press for the formulation of ambitious social criteria to enable the sustainable procurement of IT hardware.

On behalf of the Procure IT Fair campaign SOMO has submitted a lobby letter (in Dutch) to members of the Dutch parliament, urging them to press for the formulation of ambitious social criteria to enable the sustainable procurement of IT hardware.

11 February, members of the Dutch parliament met with the Dutch Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning to discuss the topic of public procurement. SOMO takes a critical position regarding the current state of affairs of this issue.

The current position of the Ministry on social criteria, as stated on the website of AgentschapNL, the government agency which formulates sustainable procurement criteria, reads as follows: "The social criteria are not included in the target of 100% (75% / 50%) Sustainable Procurement in 2010, but it is desirable to apply the criteria ". SOMO regrets this deeply. Violations of human rights and structural labour disputes, in addition to environmental concerns, are happening daily in the global electronics industry. The application of social criteria in public procurement of electronics products is therefore very urgent.

In the letter SOMO elaborates on the role of the government in stimulating public procurement, supply chain responsibility, requirement of putting effort into implement social norms and the formulation of more precise social criteria, including adherence to ILO norms.