Scholars tend to assume that in terms of institutional shape the US is generally more hierarchical and centralized than the EU and in terms of market integration the former is more of a single free market than the latter in the sense of fewer allowable trade restraints. This paper, however, in...

Aggregation of public demand may have positive effects on the demand for green and socially conscious goods. The exemplary role of procuring entities in fostering sustainable procurement is automatically accentuated by the mass of aggregated procurement. The economies of scale possible through...

The paper examines the scope for social and environmental objectives to be included in public procurement procedures. The concept of sustainable public procurement (SPP) is analysed, and the extent of its implementation by European public authorities. The paper then turns to the legal...

The relationship between public procurement and State aid control rules had been controversial for a long time. However, a growing academic consensus and, more significantly, the official position of the European Commission, ruled out that the award of a public contract can amount to the grant...

Professor Albert Sanchez Graells of the University of Hull (UK) recently published a vitally important book on procurement law, Public Procurement and the EU Competition Rules (Hart Publishing 2011). In his study, Sanchez Graells asked what seems like a simple question: Shouldn't regulators,...

This Working Paper provides a critical analysis of the EU Commission's proposals to modernise and simplify its rules on public procurement. The author of the paper, Eric Van den Abeele, looks at the political background and reasons behind the EU's revision of its public procurement directives....

The public procurement of goods, services and works consume annually up to 18% of the EU Member States' GDP. The ongoing diversity of public procurement as well as the more focused compatibility of the procedures on public procurement are shaping and substantiating the public procurement market...

Public procurement is officially regarded as an effective means to secure environmental improvement. Estimates by the European Commission indicate that public authorities within the European Union typically purchase goods and services corresponding to approximately 16 percent of GNP per annum....