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1. Member States shall ensure that contracting authorities and contracting entities, when concluding public contracts and concessions with a value equal to or greater than the thresholds laid down in Article 8 of Directive 2014/23/EU, Article 4 of Directive 2014/24/EU and Article 15 of Directive 2014/25/EU, purchase only products, services buildings and works with high energy-efficiency performance in accordance with the requirements referred to in Annex IV to this Directive, unless it is not technically feasible. Member States shall also ensure that in concluding the public contracts and concessions with a value equal to or greater than the thresholds referred to in the first subparagraph, contracting authorities and contracting entities apply the energy efficiency first principle in accordance with Article 3, including for those public contracts and concessions for which no specific requirements are provided for in Annex IV.

2. The obligations referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply if they undermine public security or impede the response to public health emergencies. The obligations referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall apply to the contracts of the armed forces only to the extent that their application does not cause any conflict with the nature and primary aim of the activities of the armed forces. The obligations shall not apply to contracts for the supply of military equipment as defined in Directive 2009/81/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council .

3. Notwithstanding Article 29(4), Member States shall ensure that contracting authorities and contracting entities assess the feasibility of concluding long-term energy performance contracts that provide long-term energy savings when procuring service contracts with significant energy content.

4. Without prejudice to paragraph 1 of this Article, when purchasing a product package fully covered by a delegated act adopted under Regulation (EU) 2017/1369, Member States may require that the aggregate energy efficiency take priority over the energy efficiency of individual products within that package, by purchasing the product package that complies with the criterion of belonging to the highest available energy efficiency class.

5. Member States may require that contracting authorities and contracting entities, when concluding contracts as referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, take into account, where appropriate, wider sustainability, social, environmental and circular economy aspects in procurement practices with a view to achieving the Union’s decarbonisation and zero pollution objectives. Where appropriate, and in accordance with Annex IV, Member States shall require contracting authorities and contracting entities to take into account Union green public procurement criteria or available equivalent national criteria. To ensure transparency in the application of energy efficiency requirements in the procurement process, Member States shall ensure that contracting authorities and contracting entities make publicly available information on the energy efficiency impact of contracts with a value equal to or greater than the thresholds referred to in paragraph 1 by publishing that information in the respective notices on Tenders Electronic Daily (TED), in accordance with Directives 2014/23/EU, 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU, and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780 . Contracting authorities may decide to require that tenderers disclose information on the life cycle global warming potential, the use of low carbon materials and the circularity of materials used for a new building and for a building to be renovated. Contracting authorities may make that information publicly available for the contracts, in particular for new buildings having a floor area larger than 2 000 m2. Member States shall support contracting authorities and contracting entities in the uptake of energy efficiency requirements, including at regional and local level, by providing clear rules and guidelines including methodologies on the assessment of life cycle costs and environment impacts and costs, setting up competence support centres, encouraging cooperation amongst contracting authorities, including across borders, and using aggregated procurement and digital procurement where possible.

6. Where appropriate, the Commission may provide further guidance to national authorities and procurement officials in the application of energy efficiency requirements in the procurement process. Such support may strengthen existing fora for the purpose of supporting Member States, such as by means of concerted action, and may assist them in taking the green public procurement criteria into account.

7. Member States shall establish the legal and regulatory provisions, and administrative practices, regarding public purchasing and annual budgeting and accounting, necessary to ensure that individual contracting authorities are not deterred from making investments in improving energy efficiency and from using energy performance contracting and third-party financing mechanisms on a long-term contractual basis.

8. Member States shall remove any regulatory or non-regulatory barriers to energy efficiency, in particular as regards legal and regulatory provisions, and administrative practices, regarding public purchasing and annual budgeting and accounting, with a view to ensuring that individual public bodies are not deterred from making investments in improving energy efficiency and from using energy performance contracting and third-party financing mechanisms on a long-term contractual basis. Member States shall report to the Commission on the measures taken to address the barriers to uptake of energy efficiency improvements as part of their integrated national energy and climate progress reports submitted pursuant to Article 17 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999.