Regulating the Sector of Public Procurement in Regional Trade Associations in the EU

Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of the international public procurement sector regulation in the regional trade unions in the European Union. The article examines the key regional legal documents of the European Union such as EU Directives and analyzes the problems of their legal application at the national level. The directives form the basis for the regulation mechanism of the public procurement and coordinate procedures for public bidding for both private and state-owned enterprises. The directives encourage free competition in the bidding process and stimulate cross-border trading. The paper describes various ways of applying the basic principles of the public procurement law (in particular, it deals with the aspect of the transparency principle as a mechanism to control public contracts’ award). The principle of transparency is considered in the paper as a “monitoring tool” for public procurement contracts. Transparency principle is described in international judicial practice, where the goal of applying the transparency principle is seen as a guarantee of compliance with other fundamental legal principles (e.g. the principle of fair competition and the principle of non-discrimination). It describes EU Directives’ subjective and objective application scope and the procedures of public procurement contracts’ award. The article points out the main terms and conditions of the tender procedures and outlines issues of possible violations of the EU and national law by the public authorities involved in procurement practice. The article provides a detailed overview of the tendering procedures’ types, the process of suppliers’ qualifications and defines procurement financial thresholds. Directives prescribe four different public procurement procedures (open, closed, competitive dialogue procedure and negotiation). Presenting of the essential internal company or financial documentation is compulsory step in the process of suppliers’ qualification. The article also discusses the importance of the most advantageous economic proposals in the procedure of the contract award. The author refers to the topic of advertising as a method of important information disclosure during the tendering process and discusses potential «pitfalls» in the field of information security breach. The article analyses EU judicial practice and raises the issue of application of the «in house» doctrine.