The EU Public Procurement Directives only apply to contracts of a value that meet or exceed the relevant EU financial … threshold. Below threshold contracts are not covered by the procurement Directives. However, below threshold contracts comprise … the vast majority of contracts awarded by contracting authorities and are therefore of great importance in all EU member …

contests. Some contracts will often contain elements of one or more of the 3 types of contract. The Directives contain specific … rules that are used to classify these mixed contracts. A number of contracts are entirely excluded from the scope of the …. Even if not excluded, contracts will only be subject to the provisions of the Directives where their value exceeds the …

obligations. Contracts are frequently complex, may involve multiple actors, may last a long time and may consume many resources …