Research material will consist of Finnish legal documents including CCA (609/2015) and the Act on Public Contracts and Concessions (APCC 1397/2016), The Finnish Administrative Procedure Act (APA 434/2003) and the Finnish Municipal Act (MA
93 Such as C-368/10 The Dutch Coffee -case about ecolabels (2012) ECR 1-284 ; T-331/06 Evropaïki Dy-namiki v European Environment Agency (2010) ECLI:EU:T:2010:292 The Evropaïki DyDy-namiki -case, C-448/01 The Wienstrom -case (2003) ECR I-14527 and C-513/99 The Helsinki Bus -case (2002) ECR I-7213.
94 UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2018, p. 21.
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410/2015). The CCA (609/2015) is a procedural law, focusing on reporting and setting the climate policy in Finland.95 This legal instrument is binding to state authorities, but not directly for local municipal authorities. The government proposal of the CCA (609/2015) defines that the CCA (609/2015) does not apply to a municipality planning. Therefore, planning regarding, combatting and adapting to climate change is considered to develop independently in autonomous municipalities.96 On the other hand, the APCC (1397/2016) and the APA (433/2003) binds both state and municipal authorities. The MA (410/2015) sets the legal framework of municipal legal responsibilities.97 Since the ratified legislation does not give direct answers regarding the tasks and obligations of municipal authorities in the context of climate legal regime, soft law material such as recommendations of the EU,98 government decrees and recommendations,99 reports, government proposals,100 empirical statistics101 and previous research are used as a context material.
The theoretical background includes the concept used in the Finnish environmental legal science called the coordination principle (yhteensovittamismalli).102 It means that in the field of environmental legislation, general laws (yleislaki) are respected, which is uncommon from the lex specials principle perspective, defining that special law always proceeds the general law.103 This means in practice, that on a case by case basis the meaning of entirety is considered.104 For example, the aim of the entirety is considered primarily aas opposed to the details. Applying lex specialis as such in the juridical system seems to highlight contradictory norms instead of the coordination principle, even if the purpose of the legal system is to aim for coherent argumentation and application.105 This contradistinction is present in public purchasing, since it aims for short term efficiency. When environmental
95 HE 82/2014 vp. p. 26.
96 Ibid.
97 The Local Government Act ( LGA 410/2015) section 7.
98 E.g., European Commission (2016b)
99 E.g., Ministry of Transport and Communication: Climate Policy Programme for the Ministry of Transport and Communications’
administrative sector for 2009–2020. Where also municipalities were recommended to co-invest in addition to state funding to public, pedestrial and cycling transport projects. p. 13.
100 HE (82/2014) for a new Climate Change Act and HE (108/2016) for new act on Public Contracts and Concessions.
101 E.g. statistics of Kuntaliitto: Yhdyskunnat ja ympäristö: Ympäristö: Ilmastonmuutos: Kuntien ilmasto- ja ympäristöverkostot 2019; Kuntaliitto: Kaupunkien ja kuntien lukumäärät ja väestötiedot. 3.4.2019.
102 Määttä, Lakimies 2013, p. 177.
103 Ibid.
104 Ibid.
105 Ibid.
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long-term targets, such as preventing and adapting to climate change, are integrated to public procurement processes, it potentially causes tensions.
The focus of this research is to analyze the legal framework the CCA (609/2015) and the international climate regime set to the public procurement processes in the cities in Finland.
With my research, I try to contribute to the ongoing conversation of promoting the sustainable society and define the forthcoming critical obstacles to solve.106 When researching the legal framework of the municipal authorities´ obligations or possibilities to use climate criteria, the legal dogmatic method is used.107 The research material consist of legislative material of climate change and public procurement at four different legislative levels; international, EU, national and local levels. I will research the main legal sources and key provisions and define the hierarchy, gaps and bridges between the norms. The EU legislation is often interpreted teleologically. The teleological legal approach means that the law needs to be interpreted complying the original goal set to it.108 In the EU it means that legal interpretation reflects political targets commonly agreed. These targets are formulated by the key objectives of EU treaties.109 One important principle found from treaties in this context is the integration principle.110
How the international climate regulation is implemented in Finnish legal system is researched by the national regulations and via soft law instruments using the legal method of constitutionalism, focusing on the values and principles of the entity, in this case e.g.
Finnish State in its processed government proposals.111 The material will consist of public procurement guidelines and drafted climate change plans.112 The growing importance of cities and new mechanisms to promote sustainable societies is reflected via the concept of cosmopolitanism and new governance.113 The method used in this analysis is the so called
106 Hervey et al. 2011, p. 18 and p. 27.
107 The aim of this method is systematization and interpretation of valid and applicapble law. For example:
Ervasti 2005, p. 10.
108 Virolainen 1995, p. 187; Laakso 2012, p. 310.
109 Sjåfjell 2014, p. 52. The EU environment policy bases on Art. 11 and Art. 191–193 of the TFEU. Espe-cially the Art. 191 of the TFEU defines that “combating climate change is an explicit objective of EU envi-ronmental policy”. OJ 26.10.2012 C 326, p. 47–390.
110 The Art. 11 of the TFEU. OJ 26.10.2012 C 326, p. 47–390.
111 Hervey et al. 2011, p. 50.
112 Helsinki Region Environmental Services 2012.
113 Hervey et al. 2011, p. 46–47 and p. 43.
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European legal method since it includes both aspects.114 The European legal method concludes that EU legal scholarship methodologies overlap. The governance in the EU area means, that not only hard legal instruments, such as regulations and directives, but also soft law instruments such as recommendations and the judgements and opinions of the ECJ, have relevance. Also, the increasing amount of administrative legislation in international legal context has been recognized and discussed, even if it does not exist as such, yet.115 However, governance, for example, in climate change legal field, can and is recommended to be studied on multiple legal levels. The climate regime includes soft law instruments, which need to be researched in order to understand the entirety of climate measures from the legal point of view.116
The final part of the thesis focuses on forthcoming regulation needs in order to reinforce the sustainability, the GPP and the climate criteria. This evaluation combines two legal methodologies: constitutionalism and governance.117 In this study the governance is defined according to Lockwood et al. (2010). The research group studied governance in multiple levels in the context of sustainable management, in which climate criteria is also included.
The research group divided governance to aspects such as legitimacy, transparency, accountability, inclusiveness, fairness, integration, capability and adaptability.118 This theoretical definition of multilevel governance will help in analysing and reflecting on the findings of this thesis. This perspective is relocated out of the state concept to the local level.
The results of this study will be discussed using the critical aspect from the point of view of promoting a sustainable society. Also, the thesis introduces the relevant legal cases. The judgments often determinate to what direction the legislation might be designed.