Regulating public procurement law at supranational level: The example of eu agreements on public procurement

This paper provides an analysis of the fragmented sphere of international agreements on public procurement law in the European Union. After a comprehensive review of the most important European Communities agreements on public procurement, this paper describes how these agreements can be subdivided within certain categories and certain types and how this categorisation and typification is vital with regard to the legal effect of a particular agreement. In this regard, it is argued that EC agreements on public procurement (including the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement) are, in principle, capable of direct applicability. Thus, disappointed bidders are - from an EU perspective -, in general, able to invoke the provisions of such EC agreements before national courts and authorities, based upon the non-discrimination principles incorporated in such agreements.