PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AND FOREIGN AID

The European Commission will start scrutinizing bidders in public procurement procedures who have received support from third countries. It is questionable whether the high expected value of the procurement contract required for the regulation to apply is still reasonable, writes Kadri Matteus.

The European Commission published a draft regulation on May 5, 2021 (COM(2021) 223 final), which aims to address the issue that support from third countries may distort the EU internal market.

The regulation also applies to certain mergers, but I will focus only on the effects of the regulation on public procurement. It seems that in recent years, support from foreign countries has in some cases had a distorting effect on the EU internal market, creating unequal competitive conditions. Although there is still generally little information available about the support provided by third countries, there are increasingly more cases where it appears that foreign support has facilitated the acquisition of EU companies, influenced investment decisions, distorted trade in services, or otherwise influenced the behavior of their recipients in the EU market, damaging fair competition.

The article was published on April 20, 2022 on ERR.ee.
Full text: https://www.err.ee/1608570385/kadri-matteus-riigihankemenetlused-ja-valisriigi-toetus

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