Raquel Carvalho

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 14 (2019), Issue 1, Page 43 - 54

Portugal has been leading the way in the implementation of e-procurement within the European Union. This paper, presented in two Parts, starts, in this Part I, by explaining the framework of e-procurement, describing the Portuguese experience regarding the use of electronic platforms based on factual data assembled by the Portuguese regulatory body. Part II describes the legal regime imposed by the European Union Law thoroughly, particularly by article 22 of Directive 2014/24/EU, which is contained in a specific ruling as it has occurred before the full 2014 Directives transposition. To provide the full picture of e-procurement in Portugal, the paper also explains the projected intention of the Directive transposition and the actual legal ruling enshrined in the Public Contracts Code (PCC). Keywords: e-Procurement; Directive 2014/24/EU Implementation

Simion-Adrian Purza

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 4, Page 257 - 269

This article provides a contextual overview of the various intergovernmental instruments and mechanisms that define EU defence and security cooperation in general and defence procurement in particular. The main hypothesis is that the legal substance pertaining to EU defence procurement has emerged from the political and strategic level of decision and has been progressively imbedded into various layers of EU policy-making, through a slow but steady trickle-down effect. The article has a twofold approach, providing a conceptual analysis of the main driving forces behind defence cooperation at EU level, along with an attempt to determine the extent to which the European Defence Agency has contributed to the evolution of the EU framework in this field, by promoting coordination mechanisms that have ultimately evolved into concrete regulatory solutions for defence procurement. Keywords: EU defence procurement; European Defence Agency; Intergovernmental cooperation; EU security integration; Directive 2009/81/EC; Code of Conduct.

Sarah Schoenmaekers

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 1, Page 3 - 17

Leniency policies within the framework of competition law make it possible for companies involved in a bid rigging cartel to obtain either total immunity or a reduction of fines. Such policies have proven to be very successful as most cartels that have been detected in the EU were revealed by a cartel member applying voluntarily for leniency. While leniency policies in the course of competition law are also very successful in the United States, self-cleaning possibilities within the framework of public procurement law, such as voluntary disclose of wrongdoings, exist as well but have been sparingly used by firms and individuals involved in misconduct. To overcome the lack of incentive effects, the US Federal Acquisition Regulation was revised in 2008 so that firms and individuals face the risk of suspension or debarment not only for misconduct itself, but also for the failure to report such misconduct. A system of mandatory disclose of information was hence introduced. By studying the underlying rationale of leniency and self-cleaning policies and by comparing the EU and US system of self-cleaning, this articles tries to explain the level of success of leniency programmes vis-à-vis incentive-based self-cleaning policies and tries to establish whether the EU’s self-cleaning policy as codified in Directive 2014/24/EU will be effective to increase integrity in public procurement.

Andrea Castelli

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 3, Page 207 - 213

In the last decade, the Smart Cities debate has been characterized by a continuous and significant development, giving rise to a wide range of definitions with the purpose of identifying the exact perimeter of the phenomenon. This included determining the processes needed to transform an urban agglomeration into a ‘smart’ city through the development of new technologies and innovation with a social purpose. With the intent of pursuing those targets and creating a model of organization designed to evaluate problems linked to the environmental protection and commercial evolution (and, as a result, to increase the quality of life of people that live in it), the EU introduced a new plan of development (the Europe 2020 program) encouraging public administrations to extend the use of instruments that were already part of the European Union legal system (like the Pre-commercial Procurement, a kind of public-private partnership) and to test new ones, like innovation partnership, introduced by Directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement. This paper aims at analysing the impact of innovation partnership in the European countries, with particular reference to Italy, considering also a comparative perspective between different approaches on the evolution and development of Smart Cities. Keywords: Public procurement; Europe 2020 Strategy; Directive 2014/24/EU; Innovation partnership; Smart Cities

Branimir Blagojevic

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 13 (2018), Issue 3, Page 245 - 251

Abby Semple

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 293 - 309

The 2014 EU Procurement Directives contain an expanded set of provisions relating to socially responsible public procurement (SRPP). From the application of higher thresholds and ability to limit competition for certain contracts through the use of social award criteria and contract performance clauses, there are numerous possibilities for contracting authorities to take considerations related to labour law compliance, trading conditions and social inclusion into account. At the same time, the EU has expanded its international commitments in the field of public procurement through the revision of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada, and through the establishment of Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas (DCFTAs) with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. This paper looks at the extent to which SRPP provisions have been incorporated in these agreements, finding that in a number of areas they offer a less supportive framework than the EU Directives for SRPP.

Beatriz Martinez Romera, Roberto Caranta

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 3, Page 281 - 292

Climate change is an urgent matter, which calls for considering the potential, opportunities and challenges of public procurement for combating it. This article analyses the role that public purchasing plays in achieving and enhancing climate change mitigation in the EU, and delves into the specific climate and procurement legal framework after the 2015 Paris Agreement and the 2014 Procurement Directive. The EU rules are analysed to understand the evolution of environmental concerns, specifically climate change, in EU public procurement law over the last twenty years. The article shows how climate change may be accommodated in the light of these two developments, most crucially, under the 2014 procurement reform, which has happened against a backdrop of ongoing tensions between concerns for the proper functioning of the internal market and calls stressing the imperatives of sustainability.