ROMANITIES CLAIMING SUSTAINABILITY: THE CHALLENGE OF PRESERVING URBAN AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT PROCESS

Abstract

Taking as starting point some peculiarities of the archaeological and urban environment involved in the planning of Rome new underground line – what we mentioned as “romanities” –, this article proposes some reflections on the topic of sustainable public procurement and its strategic use as privileged instrument for the promotion of horizontal public policies in the light of the European Union normative paradigm on the matter. The article brings a definition of sustainable public procurement and presents the European Union normative framework that offers a wide juridical legitimisation to the institution as a parameter that must orientate the decisions of the contracting authorities. Furthermore, it demonstrates from a case study how public policies for ecological and cultural protection can be legitimately introduced into public procurement procedures. The case study involves the construction of a new subway line (Line C) – the most modern infrastructure of public transportation of this kind in Italy –, and how it seems to be contributing to the growth of the levels of sustainability of the cultural and urban environment for the benefit of Rome.