I'm making my way through the Commission's recent report on public procurement and one of the things that caught my attention was the discussion on simplification. As the report rightly mentions, simplification was one of the objectives of the 2014 procurement reform. The problem is that
Since I last wrote about this case a couple of weeks ago, some more information has come to light. In a press conference soon after the accident the president of Carris informed that the company had awarded a 5 month contract to its existing contractor and the company uploaded the
The Guardian published an article yesterday claiming that Albania created an AI 'minister' that would be responsible for public procurement in the country. The logic behind this idea is to make Albania "a country where public tenders are 100% free of corruption" in the words of
Yesterday, the 140 year old Gloria funicular crashed into a building killing at least 16 people and injuring 21 more. The funiculars in Lisbon had operated for almost 1.5 centuries without any loss of life. Questions will be asked about the accident reasons and what was behind it. Finding
I received an email earlier this morning informing me of Chris Bovis passing and I am taking it as an opportunity to reflect on my memories with him. To me he was always generous and gracious and I remain grateful for his help and encouragement over the years. My first
I have a new paper out on electronic public procurement in the EU, focused on the failures of the current legislative framework with some ideas of what should be done in the upcoming revision of the procurement Directives. Here's the abstract: This paper critiques the EU’s electronic
The Danish EU Presidency has put out its programme for the upcoming semester when Denmark will hold the presidency of the Council of the European Union. The programme is called "A strong Europe in a changing world" but when it comes down to public procurement we are not
I have just uploaded to SSRN a new working paper on the failure of the successive rounds of Directives in solving the direct cross-border issue. In short, home bias is as almost as present today as it was in the 1960s. For this one I dabbed a bit outside the
The European Commission put out last week a non-paper on the interpretation and application of the Kolin and Qingdao cases for economic operators coming from third countries. This is a fairly cautious document and probably the most the Commission can do at the moment and in this Q&A
Earlier this week the Commission put out a summary of the findings on the public procurement consultation for the revision of the procurement Directives. Albert has a great entry on the findings of the consultation but I will be taking a different view on this one. In total the consultation
PAN (Greens/EFA) Of all parties represented in the Portuguese Parliament, PAN is the smallest and the only party with a proper, thoughtful set of proposals for public procurement. For the most part they are detailed and up to the point. It is a shame the other parties have not
Livre (Greens/European Free Alliance) Back in 2024, Livre had one of the most compelling set of policy proposals for public procurement. Thorough and detailed, unlike those from the larger parties. For the upcoming general election, however, Livre has decided not to add any new ideas for public procurement opting
Belgium
A couple of days ago I was contacted by Joren Vuylsteke, a PhD candidate at KU Leuven. He was wondering what had happened with the Portuguese train tender that garnered so much attention a couple of years ago. Regarding that one, well, nothing has happened. We still do not have
Portuguese general elections 2025
Iniciativa Liberal (ALDE): When it comes down to public procurement, the liberal party is the only one arguing for a root and branch reform of the Public Contracts Code. They correctly point out the salami slicing of accountability and guard rail features that were included in the legislation and were
Portuguese general elections 2025
Chega (ID) The far right party manifesto has a few policy proposals for public procurement, mostly the same as last year. Its main novelty here is the protection of national industry against unfair competition and using public procurement to support national companies. How? By privileging them when tendering. As far
Portuguese general elections 2025
PS (Socialists) Looking into this year\s Socialist Party manifesto was a fun exercise for someone living in the UK. It is very easy to gauge what was the inspiration for their approach of having five strategic missions. It comes straight from Labour's 2024 manifesto and the comparisons
Portuguese general elections 2025
Like (just) last year, I am once again going to look at the party manifestos of the various parties running in the Portuguese General Election to be held in a couple of weeks. The focus of this analysis is exclusive to their proposals for public procurement - a hot topic
DEI
It was yesterday on the news that the US federal government via its embassies requested EU companies to confirm that they do not have DEI policies in place. The details are sketchy but they seem to have targeted at least French companies and in particular companies who have or are
Procurement Directives Revision
On this final entry based on my response to the public consultation on the revision of the procurement Directives I focus instead on what should not change and is worth keeping as it is. 44. While tempting to focus on change in the context of the public consultation for a
Procurement Directives Revision
On this seventh entry I covered the idea that was floated back in the original draft for the 2014 procurement Directive of the creation of a single oversight body in each member State. I remember hearing some arguments about why that was dropped but honestly the details evade me at
Public consultation
This sixth entry covers a topic I did not look into earlier when discussing my ideas for the procurement reform. The issue of legal services has been in my mind for a couple of decades now ever since I started working in public procurement as a lawyer and the industry&
Procurement Directives Revision
The fifth entry into this series about my submission the EU consultation on the revision of the procurement Directives is on exclusions reform and how taking them out of the procurement process is an obvious win for simplification. 30. Currently, contracting authorities have to apply mandatory and optional exclusions during
Procurement Directives Revision
This fourth entry is focused on the number of public procurement procedures currently included in the procurement toolbox and how they should be reduced to three: open, competitive with negotiation and a new procedure for services 22. At the moment, a contracting authority has access to open, restricted, competitive dialogue,
Procurement Directives Revision
The third entry into the series on my response to the procurement Directives revision consultation is on electronic procurement and how and why it needs to be redesigned 15. The current electronic procurement framework requires fundamental reform because it merely digitises analogue processes rather than reimagining procurement for the digital