European Procurement Law Group

On September the 9th, the Directorate-General of Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SME’s proposed a single, directly applicable Regulation – the PPA – to replace the three 2014 Directives on public contracts. Public procurement is a powerful policy lever at the Union’s disposal, especially in a geopolitical context marked by intensifying competition, supply-chain vulnerabilities and the exploitation of economic dependencies, accounting for around 15% of the EU’s GDP. The complexity and lack of flexibility of 2014 Directives confirmed that today’s public procurement rules know significant shortcomings, creating significant legal uncertainty for both public buyers and economic operators. Price-only awards remain prevalent and the uptake of social, environmental and innovation…