Commission publishes white paper on levelling playing field as regards foreign subsidies

The Commission published yesterday a new white paper on levelling playing field as regards foreign subsidies. This white paper covers a number of areas, including public procurement. Most of the comments on public procurement are not exactly new, such as the issues surrounding third country access to public procurement. In part, this is due to the absurd approach taken in years by regarding the the unilateral easy access granted by the Union rules based in the (wrong) assumption other countries would reply in kind.

It is interesting to note however the renewed emphasis on levelling playing field and public procurement, perhaps due to Brexit and the UK's approach to ignore the topic in the negotiations, limiting public procurement participation to the extent of the parties GPAs commitments.