The reform in public procurement legislation : an analysis of the new EU directives

Abstract

The importance of public procurement cannot be denied, improvements in the public procurement system can have a direct beneficial effect on the overall economic situation of a country. Therefore, it is desirable that public procurement be regulated. In view of the high amount of resources committed to public procurement systems and the need for improvement, this research project explores the fundamental aspects regulating the public procurement process. The main objective is to appraise how the new EU Public Procurement regime is translated into a simpler, fairer, and more efficient instrument for public purchasers and business organisations, and whether the new rules can achieve the best value for money for public purchases while at the same time ensuring that the principles of fairness, competition and non-discrimination are adhered to in practice. What follows is an attempt to analyse and highlight, non-exhaustively, both the advantages and disadvantages of the reform of EU public procurement law, bearing in mind the overarching treaty goals on sustainability. Moreover, the key areas in which the final texts of the new directives vary from the previous regime are examined. Both EU law and domestic law have been delved into with the scope of identifying the main elements contained within this reform, and acknowledging its impacts on an ever more important sector to a country’s GDP. The underlying core issues of public procurement, including the tendering procedures and award criteria, life cycle costing, eco- and fair-trade labels, linkages to the mandatory horizontal rule on environmental and social legal compliance, framework agreements, dynamic purchasing systems and the exclusionary grounds are also examined. Moreover, the implications of the new rules on sustainable public procurement for sustainable companies, and particularly for small and medium sized enterprises, have also been explored, taking note of the challenges that may be encountered during implementation, due to take place during the course of 2016.