Growing concern that domestic undertakings are priced out of the European public procurement market has yielded EU rule makers to push forward with legislative action to level the playing field as regards foreign subsidies. Hence, the Commission has recently presented a legislative proposal on ‘foreign subsidies distorting the internal market’. Given the potential impact of the proposed tools on public procurement procedures, the main aim of this article is to offer a critical assessment of the present proposal. Overall, we contend that it is difficult to argue why the proposal under its current form should hold sway in public procurement.
Keywords: foreign subsidies; level playing field; legislative proposal