The Procurement of Services of General Interest

Abstract

The jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice has indicated on numerous occasions that public procurement has a multi-faceted dimension in assisting the process of the common market. In particular, the Court has demonstrated the pivotal position of public procurement in the process of determining the parameters under which public subsidies and state financing of public services constitute state aids. In the centre of the debate regarding the relation between state aids and the financing of services of general interest, within the broader remit of the interplay of subsidies and public services, public procurement has emerged as an essential component of state aids regulation.¹ The European Court of Justice has inferred that the existence of public procurement, as a legal system and a procedural framework, verifies conceptual links, creates compatibility safeguards and authenticates established principles applicable in state aids regulation. Public procurement in the common market not only does represent the procedural framework for the contractual interface between public and private sectors,² it also reflects on the character and nature of activities of the state and its organs in pursuit of public interest.³ Public procurement regulation has acquired legal, economic and policy dimensions, as market integration and the fulfilment of treaty principles are balanced with policy choices.⁴