Procurement Directives

The European Union directives on public contracts derive from objectives concerning the functioning of the EU internal market, such as the free movement of goods and services. These objectives have been laid down in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Based on the directives, public contracts exceeding a certain threshold have been opened up to competition in the EU. The directives ensure that tenderers within the EU are treated in an equal and non-discriminatory manner, regardless of their nationality.

Directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement (Official Journal of the European Union L 94, p. 65–242)
Directive 2014/25/EU on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors (Utilities Directive) (Official Journal of the European Union L 94, p. 243–374)
Directive 2014/23/EU on the award of concession contracts  (Official Journal of the European Union L 94, p. 1–64)

Remedies Directives

The provisions concerning legal remedies in procurement legislation are based on the Remedies Directives setting out certain minimum requirements for national procedures.

Remedies Directive for the public sector (Directive 89/665/EEC), which is mended by the following Directives:  92/50/EEC and 2007/66/EC

Remedies Directive for the utilities sector (Directive 92/13/EEC), which is amended by the following Directives: 2006/97/EC and 2007/66/EC

The Remedies Directives were amended on 20 December 2007 with the New Remedies Directive 2007/66/EC

Regulations

Standard Forms Regulation

The Standard Forms Regulation establishes standard EU forms for the publication of notices. The forms for contract notices, contract award notices and prior information notices are submitted in HILMA and others on the SIMAP website.

Standard Forms Regulation (EC) No 1564/2005, which has been amended by the Commission Regulation (EC) No 1150/2009. A new form for a voluntary ex ante transparency notice was added to the standard forms, and the contract award notice forms were amended as required by the New Remedies Directive 2007/66/EC.

CPV Regulation

The Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) is a classification system for procurement vocabulary, established by the Regulation (EC) No 2195/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The current CPV codes have been established by the Commission Regulation (EC) No 213/2008. The CPV comprises 6,000 different codes of up to 9 digits.

WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA)File opens in a new tab pdf 138kB