Green Public Procurement in Slovakia: Ready to Develop Innovative Effects?

Societal issues are challenging governments all around the world to seek innovative approaches and practices that would incorporate critical socioeconomic goals into international documents. An opportunity for introducing new approaches is public procurement, especially green public procurement (GPP). GPP is part of a green transition process towards a new development model that ensures environmentally sustainable and fairer societies. It gives opportunities to select the bids not only based on the lowest price but prioritize bids that respect the environment. In this paper, we focus on national-level factors and process factors in developing green public procurement capabilities in Slovakia as one of the EU member states. This paper analyses the current state of green public procurement capabilities (legislation, strategic documents) and performance (analysis of green bids and contracts in the years 2023-2024). The practical implications of our research lie in the importance for post-transition, transition and developing countries, where public procurement is still mainly about 'buy as cheap as possible', and its broader context is not considered to the extent necessary. Specific research on the functioning of green public procurement as a source of environmental innovation must also reflect on this fundamental dimension.