The European Commission (Commission) has proposed a Public Procurement Act (Proposed Regulation) that would allow public buyers to give EU firms preferential treatment in public procurement across the EU. While the Proposed Regulation does not impose a blanket duty on public bodies to buy European, it would give them greater scope to favour EU and treaty-protected suppliers and supply chains. For UK and US businesses competing for public contracts in the EU, the key question will be not where a bidder is established, but rather whether the bidder and its bid benefit from protection under the EU’s international treaty commitments. UK businesses would be better positioned than US equivalents under the proposal due to the additional protections provided under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (EU-UK TCA).
While the three existing EU procurement directives are implemented through different national laws in each EU Member State, the Proposed Regulation would replace them with a single, directly applicable Act. This would give suppliers and public buyers a harmonised, consistent set of rules across the EU. The Proposed Regulation would also allow more negotiation and refinement of bids during a competition than is currently permitted. It would also reduce the proportion of contracts that are awarded on price alone, by demanding that quality plays a role in most evaluations.
The proposal sits alongside the Commission’s proposed Industrial Accelerator Act, which would introduce targeted “Made in EU” and low-carbon requirements for public procurement in strategic sectors including steel, cement, aluminium, automotive and net-zero technologies. Although the two proposals operate differently, together they illustrate a broader shift towards using public purchasing power to support European industrial capacity, resilience and economic security.
