JJUA54050U EU Public Procurement Law

The EU public procurement rules are detailed and complex and of utmost importance in practice as they regulate the use of huge sums and very frequently give rise to disputes. Public procurement amounts to about 17 % of GNP in the Member States of the EU and national courts and complaints boards have dealt with thousands of procurement cases. This national practice is supplemented by about two hundred of judgments from the Court of Justice of the European Union on procurement law.
The consequences of a violation of the rules can be very unpleasant and includes the duty to award damages for the loss of profit to a tenderer and the duty to set aside a concluded contract. The state of procurement law is still uncertain with regard to many questions of importance in practice and the development of the law in this area is highly dynamic. The course will cover both the substantive public procurement law and its enforcement. Emphasis will be on the following points:
• The purpose of the EU public procurement rules and its field of application with emphasis on the concept ”contracting authority”
• The principle of equal treatment of tenderers and the principle of transparency
• The ban on negotiations
• Exclusion and selection of tenderers
• Award and conclusion of the contract
• Non-economic criteria including social and environmental considerations
• Termination of the tender procedure without an award of the contract
• Enforcement of the EC public procurement rules