This chapter focuses on the measurement of institutional convergence in the new EU member states and four Southern European EU member countries. Previous studies have used perception data or expert surveys at the country level to quantify institutional convergence. We present a new method which...

This study provides an analysis of the functions, structures and capacity of the central public procurement bodies of Member States. Twenty-two separate overviews of public procurement systems in the 22 participating Member States were produced on the basis of national responses to a detailed...

The authors confront complexness and rigour of EU directives on public procurement vis-à-vis broad wording of international agreements concluded within EU neighbourhood policy. The firs reason for this comparison is ongoing spread of principles of the EU law to the third countries. The second...

The yearly turnover of public procurement in the European Union ('EU') amounts to some billions of Euros and public procurement is a huge part of any member state's business. In 2004, public procurement amounted to around 13% of the EU's gross domestic product. In Latvia, approximately one third...

The paper considers opening national market in public procurement the focal point of transposition of the public directives, and therefore case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union is analysed. The question is, however, how far are the markets really opened, i.e. how successful...