This book explores Public Procurement novelties and challenges in an interdisciplinary way. The process whereby the public sector awards contracts to companies for the supply of works, goods or services is a powerful instrument to ensure the achievement of new public goals as well as an efficient use of public funds. This book brings together the papers that have been presented during the "First Symposium on Public Procurement", a conference held in Rome last summer and to be repeated again yearly. As Public Procurement touches on many fields (law, economics, political science, engineering) the editors have used an interdisciplinary approach to discuss four main topics of interest which represent the four different parts in which this book is divided: Competitive dialogue and contractual design fostering innovation and need analysis, Separation of selection and award criteria, including exclusion of reputation indicators like references to experience, performance and CV’s from award criteria, Retendering a contract for breach of procurement rules or changes to contract (contract execution), Set-asides for small and medium firms, as in the USA system with the Small Business Act that reserves shares of tenders to SMEs only.

This book explores Public Procurement novelties and challenges in an interdisciplinary way. The process whereby the public sector awards contracts to companies for the supply of works, goods or services is a powerful instrument to ensure the achievement of new public goals as well as an efficient use of public funds. This book brings together the papers that have been presented during the "First Symposium on Public Procurement", a conference held in Rome last summer and to be repeated again yearly. As Public Procurement touches on many fields (law, economics, political science, engineering) the editors have used an interdisciplinary approach to discuss four main topics of interest which represent the four different parts in which this book is divided: Competitive dialogue and contractual design fostering innovation and need analysis, Separation of selection and award criteria, including exclusion of reputation indicators like references to experience, performance and CV’s from award criteria, Retendering a contract for breach of procurement rules or changes to contract (contract execution), Set-asides for small and medium firms, as in the USA system with the Small Business Act that reserves shares of tenders to SMEs only.

This book addresses the increasing demand for a logical understanding of how framework agreement should be used and implemented.

Appropriate laws and regulations are essential tools to direct the action of procurers toward the public good and avoid corruption and misallocation of resources. Common laws and regulations across regions, nations and continents potentially allow for the further opening of markets and ventures to newcomers and new ideas to satisfy public demand. Law and Economics of Public Procurement Reforms collects the original contributions related to the new European Union Directives approved in 2014 by the EU Parliament. They are of both economists and lawyers, and have been presented in a manner that allows for exchanges of views and "real time" interaction. This book features, for each section, an introductory exchange between two experts of different disciplines, made up of a series of sequential interactions between an economist and a lawyer, which enriches the liveliness of the debate and improve the mutual understanding between the two professions. Four sections characterize this book: Supporting social considerations via public procurement; Green public procurement; Innovation through innovative partnerships; and Lots - The Economic and Legal Challenges of Centralized Procurement. These themes have current relevance of the new European Public Procurement Directives. Written by an impressive array of experts in their respected fields, this volume is of great importance to practitioners who work in the field of EU public procurement in the Member States of the EU, as well as academics and students who study public finance, public policy and regulation.

This book investigates the strategic use of public procurement as a way to establish “buying green” as a common practice – not only in the EU, but all over the world. However, imposing environmental requirements may affect the conditions of competition between suppliers, especially between local and foreign ones. This is particularly relevant for signatory states to the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), a plurilateral WTO agreement that aims at liberalizing public procurement markets. So how can these countries strike a balance between trade concerns and using the environmental potential of public procurement? What scope does the GPA 2012 leave for environmental criteria and how are signatory states making use of it? The need for answers to these questions is becoming even more pressing with the increasing use of green public procurement (GPP). This book discusses approaches to finding legal solutions to this question, using a multilayered approach to do so: In a first step, an analysis of the pertinent GPA provisions serves to delineate the scope for GPP under WTO law. In a second step, an evaluation of the implementation of the respective provision at the regional and national level by the EU and Switzerland helps reveal the impact of the GPA on its signatory states. While the book chiefly focuses on the legal framework for GPP, it also takes into account the latest developments in jurisprudence and policy initiatives. It concludes by proposing practical solutions regarding the specific design of GPP policies and measures in compliance with the GPA. The comparative approach applied in the book, focusing on the implementation of the WTO/GPA by two selected signatories, makes it an informative and insightful resource for practitioners, policymakers and legal scholars from all GPA signatory countries, extending its relevance beyond the selected examples (the EU and Switzerland).

Framework agreements have arisen in response to the well documented and high costs of public procurement procedures. The agreements have significant potential to improve procedural efficiency in public procurement, but are complex to operate. Inadequate preparation and implementation can also frustrate their potential both to tackle waste, abuse and corruption and to enhance value for money. In this enlightening book, Gian Luigi Albano and Caroline Nicholas look at the key decisions required for designing and using framework agreements, and address both legal and economic issues to give the reader a clear understanding of the planning, variables and flexibility needed for efficient implementation. This book will be of interest to policy makers, lawyers and public procurement practitioners who want to deepen their understanding of the legal and economic issues surrounding framework agreements.

Public procurement and competition law are both important fields of EU law and policy, intimately intertwined in the creation of the internal market. Hitherto their close connection has been noted, but not closely examined. This work is the most comprehensive attempt to date to explain the many ways in which these fields, often considered independent of one another, interact and overlap in the creation of the internal market. This process of convergence between competition and public procurement law is particularly apparent in the 2014 Directives on public procurement, which consolidate the principle of competition in terms very close to those advanced by the author in the first edition. This second edition builds upon this approach and continues to ask how competition law principles inform and condition public procurement rules, and whether the latter (in their revised form) are adequate to ensure that competition is not distorted. The second edition also deepens the analysis of the market behaviour of the public buyer from a competition perspective. Proceeding through a careful assessment of the general rules of competition and public procurement, the book constantly tests the efficacy of these rules against a standard of the proper functioning of undistorted competition in the market for public procurement. It also traces the increasing relevance of competition considerations in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and sets out criteria and recommendations to continue influencing the development of EU Economic Law.