European infrastructure procurement through PPP

European countries are introducing changes to their legislation and institutions that enable infrastructure procurement through public–private partnerships (PPPs). The purpose of this paper is to survey the legislation and institutions for infrastructure procurement through PPPs across Europe. Procurement procedures have no defined status in the regulatory framework of the European Union (EU); as a consequence, each member state has developed its own PPP legal and institutional framework. As such the process of procurement varies widely between the member states. The legislative frameworks for PPPs are discussed with reference to central and eastern Europe. This paper finds that effective legal, regulatory and contractual conditions perform successfully when they are based on and supported by the institutional framework of a country. A majority of European countries have realised this necessity and have developed various institutional framework models accordingly. These models are defined according to the degree of centralisation of PPP institutions in a country's overall state structure; the models are: highly centralised (western newly independent states); highly decentralised (France and Portugal); and mixed centralised and decentralised (Ireland, the UK, Italy and the Netherlands). The changing institutional framework in new member states is described with reference to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.