1.Member States shall ensure that the public sector fulfils an exemplary role in the context of this Directive. To this end, they shall communicate effectively the exemplary role and actions of the public sector to citizens and/or companies, as appropriate.
Member States shall ensure that energy efficiency improvement measures are taken by the public sector, focussing on cost-effective measures which generate the largest energy savings in the shortest span of time. Such measures shall be taken at the appropriate national, regional and/or local level, and may consist of legislative initiatives and/or voluntary agreements, as referred to in Article 6(2)(b), or other schemes with an equivalent effect. Without prejudice to national and Community public procurement legislation:
at least two measures shall be used from the list set out in Annex VI;
Member States shall facilitate this process by publishing guidelines on energy efficiency and energy savings as a possible assessment criterion in competitive tendering for public contracts.
Member States shall facilitate and enable the exchange of best practices between public sector bodies, for example on energy-efficient public procurement practices, both at the national and international level; to this end, the organisation referred to in paragraph 2 shall cooperate with the Commission with regard to the exchange of best practice as referred to in Article 7(3).
2.Member States shall assign to a new or existing organisation or organisations the administrative, management and implementing responsibility for the integration of energy efficiency improvement requirements as set out in paragraph 1. These may be the same authorities or agencies as those referred to in Article 4(4).