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1. The Commission shall adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 89 to supplement this Regulation by specifying mandatory minimum environmental sustainability requirements for construction products.

2. For procurement procedures falling within the scope of Directives 2014/24/EU or 2014/25/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, where contracts require minimum environmental sustainability performance for construction products as regards their essential characteristics covered by harmonised technical specifications, contracting authorities and contracting entities shall apply the mandatory minimum environmental sustainability requirements laid down in the delegated acts referred to in paragraph 1. This shall not prevent contracting authorities and contracting entities from establishing:

(a) more ambitious environmental sustainability requirements related to essential characteristics referred in the first subparagraph; or (b) additional environmental sustainability requirements related to other essential characteristics than those referred in the first subparagraph.

3. Member States and the Commission shall provide technical assistance and advice to contracting authorities and contracting entities in charge of public procurement on how to comply with mandatory minimum environmental sustainability requirements laid down in the delegated acts referred to in paragraph 1.

4. Mandatory minimum environmental sustainability requirements laid down in the delegated acts referred to in paragraph 1 for public contracts awarded by contracting authorities or contracting entities may, as appropriate to the product family or product category concerned, take the form of:

(a) ‘technical specifications’ within the meaning of Article 42 of Directive 2014/24/EU and Article 60 of Directive 2014/25/EU;

(b) ‘selection criteria’ within the meaning of Article 58 of Directive 2014/24/EU and Article 80 of Directive 2014/25/EU;

(c) ‘conditions for performance of contracts’ within the meaning of Article 70 of Directive 2014/24/EU and Article 87 of Directive 2014/25/EU;

(d) ‘contract award criteria’ within the meaning of Article 67 of Directive 2014/24/EU and of Article 82 of Directive 2014/25/EU.

5. When establishing mandatory minimum environmental sustainability requirements pursuant to paragraph 1 for public contracts, the Commission shall, in line with paragraphs 13 and 28 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making, consult experts designated by each Member State and relevant stakeholders, carry out an impact assessment and take into account at least the following criteria:

(a) the value and volume of public contracts awarded for the product family or product category concerned;

(b) the environmental benefits resulting from the uptake of products in the highest two classes of performance;

(c) the need to ensure sufficient demand for more environmentally sustainable products;

(d) the economic feasibility, for contracting authorities or contracting entities, of buying more environmentally sustainable products, without entailing disproportionate costs, and the availability of those products on the market;

(e) the market situation at Union level of the relevant product family or product category;

(f) the effects of the requirements on competition;

(g) the impact on, and needs of, SMEs;

(h) the Members States’ regulatory needs and different climate conditions. The first impact assessment shall be launched by the Commission by 31 December 2026.

6. Contracting authorities and contracting entities may on an exceptional basis decide not to apply paragraph 2 of this Article where, after preliminary market consultation in line with Article 40 of Directive 2014/24/EU and Article 58 of Directive 2014/25/EU, it was found that:

(a) the required construction product can only be supplied by a specific economic operator, and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists;

(b) no suitable tenders or no suitable requests to participate have been submitted in response to a previous public procurement procedure; or (c) the application of paragraph 1 or the incorporation of the required construction product in construction works would oblige that contracting authority or contracting entity to incur disproportionate costs, or would result in incompatibility or technical difficulties. Contracting authorities and contracting entities may presume that estimated contract value differences above 10 %, based on objective and transparent data, are disproportionate. When contracting authorities and contracting entities use the derogation in this paragraph, the procurement procedure cannot be considered to be environmentally sustainable in relation to the construction products to which the exceptions have been applied. Every three years, Member States shall report to the Commission about the use of this paragraph, in accordance with Article 83 of Directive 2014/24/EU. This paragraph shall be without prejudice to the possibility of excluding abnormally low tenders under Article 69 of Directive 2014/24/EU and Article 84 of Directive 2014/25/EU.

7. The EU Ecolabel and other national or regional EN ISO 14024 type I ecolabelling schemes officially recognised in accordance with Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 66/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council may be used to demonstrate compliance with the minimum environmental sustainability requirements where such label complies with the requirements set out in Article 19 of this Regulation.