Abstract
Newspapers and academic journals regularly report on problematic procurement procedures in areas such as the social domain, home care services, the collection and disposal of household waste, public transport and the purchase of schoolbooks. The recurring question in these debates is about the advantages (and disadvantages) of having the State3 perform these activities itself instead of outsourcing them to the free market. The question whether such activities should be considered as economic or as of general interest according to European law has dominated the scientific discussion in the last decades. The debate has
mainly focussed on how these concepts - activities in the economic sphere or in the general interest - should be defined and under which conditions competition and public procurement regulation should be applied. The general assumption has been that determining whether public procurement law applies or not, depends indeed on the nature of the activities according to (European) competition and internal market law. The same question dominated the wave of privatisation4 that has swept Europe in the mid1980s when a great number of activities that previously were offered by the State were transferred to private parties. In my view, focussing on the nature of the activities results in an unproductive debate. The discussion has been centred for a (too) long time excessively on the nature of the activities, with much less emphasis on how the State uses its wide discretionary power to choose its in- or outsourcing strategy and to achieve its policy goals.
mainly focussed on how these concepts - activities in the economic sphere or in the general interest - should be defined and under which conditions competition and public procurement regulation should be applied. The general assumption has been that determining whether public procurement law applies or not, depends indeed on the nature of the activities according to (European) competition and internal market law. The same question dominated the wave of privatisation4 that has swept Europe in the mid1980s when a great number of activities that previously were offered by the State were transferred to private parties. In my view, focussing on the nature of the activities results in an unproductive debate. The discussion has been centred for a (too) long time excessively on the nature of the activities, with much less emphasis on how the State uses its wide discretionary power to choose its in- or outsourcing strategy and to achieve its policy goals.
Original language | English |
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Pages | 1-11 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Publication status | Published - 14 Jun 2022 |
Event | Public procurement Global Revolution XI - University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom Duration: 13 Jun 2022 → 14 Jun 2022 https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pprg/events/2021/global-revolution-xi.aspx |
Conference
Conference | Public procurement Global Revolution XI |
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Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
City | Nottingham |
Period | 13/06/22 → 14/06/22 |
Internet address |