Public Procurement

Timely reminder public procurement rules still apply in the UK

Pedro Telles

22 Mar 2018 — 1 min read

It seems Gemalto, a French company has won the contract to produce the UK passports post-Brexit. FT has the scoop:

"Gemalto, a security company based in Paris, is expected to win a tender process ahead of the UK’s De La Rue, one person briefed on the decision said. De La Rue currently holds the contract for producing UK passports, worth £490m over 10 years.

Both the Sun and Daily Telegraph newspapers reported the news on Wednesday evening. Bill Cash, a pro-Brexit MP, said the decision was “incongruous to say the least” and “symbolically completely wrong”.

“The irony is unreal,” said Eloise Todd, chief executive of Best for Britain, the anti-Brexit campaign group.

The Home Office said the procurement process was ongoing, adding: “We do not require passports to be manufactured in the UK. A proportion of blank passport books are currently manufactured overseas, and there are no security or operational reasons why this would not continue.” "

While the UK is inside the EU (transition included) EU public procurement rules and general principles remain applicable. And there's no irony in that.

On case C-652/22 Kolin Inşaat Turizm Sanayi ve Ticaret

The CJEU laid down early this week a fairly important judgment on third country access to procurement. On case C-652/22 Kolin Inşaat Turizm Sanayi ve Ticaret the Court concluded that economic operators from third countries neither party to the GPA nor with whom the EU has a deal are

All steam ahead with the revision of the procurement Directives

A couple of weeks ago a little birdie told me the Commission wanted to get the ball rolling on the revision of the procurement legal framework within the first 100 days of its term. Well, looks like they want to hit the ground running with the evaluation of the current

The Portuguese Audit Court finds systemic abuse of direct awards

Back in 2021 the then Portuguese government decided to make procurement more flexible as to ensure the Recovery and Resilience Facility money was spent quickly. In 2023 I warned about some of the risks that the reform had introduced here and here. Fast forward to 2024 and the Portuguese Audit

The Public Procurement Data Space is upon us

The Commission launched last week the PPDS, a service that is expected to aggregate data about public procurement in the EU. In essence it takes the data included in the eForms filled in by contracting authorities and makes it available to anyone. For example, it is possible to check for

Read more

On case C-652/22 Kolin Inşaat Turizm Sanayi ve Ticaret

All steam ahead with the revision of the procurement Directives

The Portuguese Audit Court finds systemic abuse of direct awards

The Public Procurement Data Space is upon us