ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that public procurement may constitute an important instrument to implement labour law standards with the discussions on reconciliation of social and economic policies within the European Union. It explores how different levels of socio-economic governance interact in negotiating tensions between economic integration and social values in this field. The chapter focuses on the legal orders of the International Labour Organization (ILO) as an international organization, the EU as a supranational organization and Sweden as a Member State of both. Public procurement is used as an example where labour law requirements are employed to protect a social dimension within a framework geared to maintain transnational competition for services required by the public sector. Initially, the European Economic Community (EEC) aimed to pursue a common market of free internal trade of goods, services, labour and capital. The relationship between the ILO and the EU has been characterized as a reciprocal link where the formulation of EU social policies.
