Pedro Telles

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Jahrgang 17 (2022), Ausgabe 3, Seite 179 - 189

The purpose of this article is to assess the possibility of using blockchain technology in the realm of public procurement within the EU, particularly in connection with the award of public contracts. In this context, blockchain is used as an umbrella term covering IT technologies and cryptographic solutions used to generate consensus on a distributed ledger. The article will present three real use cases for public procurement in Spain, Colombia and Peru. It will also posit two specific areas of EU public procurement practice that might benefit from the use of blockchain technology – the area of data management and accessibility and in situations of clear lack of confidence in public powers. Keywords: blockchain; use case; public procurement

Pedro Telles, Grith Skovgaard Ølykke

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Jahrgang 12 (2017), Ausgabe 3, Seite 239 - 252

This article analyses the conceptual link between law and compliance, exploring the different theories and types of compliance (corporate, State and regulatory) and how they can be found today within the EU legal public procurement framework. The analytical focus is on Directive 2014/24/EU and within it how sustainable requirements have increased the level of compliance required, particularly regulatory compliance. Compliance was already present in previous EU public procurement frameworks, but its extent on Directive 2014/24/EU leads the authors to consider the current legal framework as subject to substantial regulatory compliance obligations external to the process of procurement. In short, procurement has been transformed in a way to enforce regulatory obligations that are not intrinsic to the process of buying. This leads to the conclusion that questions such as the cost and trade offs from imposing compliance obligations to public and private bodies warrant further research, particularly at the legal, economic and political science intersection.

Pedro Telles

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Jahrgang 11 (2016), Ausgabe 3, Seite 205 - 219

The regulation of procurement within the European Union is binary: above certain financial thresholds, contracts are subject to full EU regulation, whereas below they are only subject to national rules (in general). First introduced in the 1970s, the financial thresholds are arbitrary without a clear justification for their specific values. Thresholds remained fairly stable in nominal terms and over the years became solely dependent on the commitments assumed in the various revisions of multilateral procurement agreements, currently the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) 2014. In consequence, the external market access commitments accepted by the EU in the GPA determine today the size of public procurement internal market. While it is true that inflation and currency fluctuations have progressively reduced the real term value of thresholds, no proactive reductions have been undertaken by EU lawmakers, contrary to what was done with trade tariffs. In consequence, current threshold levels do not reflect any productivity improvements or transaction cost reductions achieved during the last 40 years. By remaining stable in nominal and changing only due to external pressures and inflation inertia, the thresholds have effectively functioned as a ceiling and a floor to the concept of internal market in public procurement within the EU.

Pedro Telles

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Jahrgang 11 (2016), Ausgabe 1, Seite 22 - 30

This paper analyses potential implications the Spezzino case (C-113/13) may have for third sector organisations’ participation in public procurement. This decision by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) constitutes a major derogation to the principles of freedom of establishment (Article 49 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union) and services (Article 56 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union). The paper argues that the scope of impact on third sector organisations’ participation in public procurement is smaller than originally anticipated. The exception created by Spezzino applies to contracts that are only subject to primary EU law, but not contracts covered by either Directive 2004/18/EC or Directive 2014/24/EU. Furthermore, the exception grounds are to be interpreted restrictively. It is thus arguable that the exception applies only to emergency ambulance service contracts excluded from Directive 2014/24/EU and urgent ambulance service contracts with a value of €750,000 or less and with cross-border interest.