Some thoughts on the procurement elements of the EU's Draft Withdrawal Agreement

The Commission has just published today a Draft Withdrawal Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community.

The Draft Withdrawal Agreement sets out the arrangements for the UK's withdrawal from the Union and Title VIII (Articles 71-74) refers to public procurement, namely ongoing procedures at the date of withdrawal.

Most of the content seems non-contentious with the rule of thumb being that public procurement procedures initiated before the date of withdrawal will still be subject to EU substantive and remedies rules as appropriate until they are finalised. This logic applies to traditional procedures (Article 72(1)(a)) and also to framework agreements (Article 72(1)(b)) concluded before the withdrawal. It does not seem to cover however dynamic purchasing systems though - at least not explicitly.

It is worth mentioning however what is meant by a procedure "being finalised". One would assume that for the purposes of Article 72(1)(a) it would be with the contract signature, but not necessarily:

"4. A procedure referred to in paragraph 1 shall be considered finalised:
(a) **upon publication of a contract award notice in accordance with the relevant rules** or, where those rules do not require the publication of a contract award notice, upon conclusion of the relevant contract; or

(b) upon informing tenderers or, according to the relevant rules, persons entitled to otherwise submit applications, of the reasons why the contract was not awarded if the contracting authority or contracting entity decided not to award a contract."

As contracts covered by the Directives do require the publication of contract award notices (even if compliance in practice is shoddy...) it is important to bear in mind the provision of Article 72(4)(a).

There are no provisions in the Draft Withdrawal Agreement about contracts already awarded and under performance. As such, the conclusion is that performance of contracts post-withdrawal will be subject to the national laws only thus meaning Articles 70 to 73 of Directive 2014/24/EU on contract performance will no longer apply.