In order to form a preliminary view on which PPP procurement procedures are used in the EU Member States to date, EPEC has conducted an independent review of OJEU contract notices related to PPP projects launched in 19 selected EU Member States from the beginning of 2007 up until mid of December 2009.
Although the review of the notices proved useful in getting a feeling about the scope of application of each of the available procurement procedures as far as PPP projects in Europe are concerned, it still fell short of delivering reliable data in all cases. This is due to the fact that comprehensive summary of OJEU notices in English is not available in many cases, as well as that such notices are not classified by project type (i.e. PPP or traditional public procurement) in Tenders Electronic Daily (TED).
It should be noted that our review did not cover the United Kingdom and France, which are the two largest markets for PPPs30. It is, however, well established that both use competitive dialogue almost exclusively to procure their PPPs31. In addition, a separate major review of the competitive dialogue practices in the United Kingdom has been commissioned by HM Treasury and is expected to be publicly available shortly.
Jurisdiction | Notices relating to PPPs and | Other notices relating to PPPs (01.01.2007 - mid-December 2009) |
Austria | There seem to be no contract notices involving the competitive dialogue procedure. | The negotiated procedure seems to be the most frequently used procurement route for PPPs in Austria with open procedure being mainly used for procurement of service contracts. Available for review: 9 contract notices; 5 contract award notices |
Belgium | The competitive dialogue procedure is not fully transposed into the local laws yet. No contract notices involving the competitive dialogue procedure have been published during the reviewed period. | All sizable PPPs in Belgium have been procured using the negotiated procedure. Available for review: 13 contract notices; 2 contract award notices |
Bulgaria | No contract notices involving the competitive dialogue procedure have been published during the reviewed period. | No contract notices relating to alternative procurement procedures have been published during the reviewed period. |
Cyprus | No contract notices involving the competitive dialogue procedure have been published during the reviewed period. The competitive dialogue procedure was used for projects other than PPP projects. | The negotiated procedure seems to be used in Cyprus for procurement of PPP projects and concessions. Available for review: 1 contract notice; 1 contract award notice |
Czech Republic | The competitive dialogue procedure seems to be used relatively often in procurement of public services contracts. However, no PPP projects seem to have been awarded using this procedure so far. Available for review: 1 contract notice | There seem to be no contract notices involving alternative procurement procedures. |
Denmark | The competitive dialogue procedure seems to have been used in a number of PPP procurements. Available for review: 2 contract notices; 2 contract award notices | There seem to be no contract notices involving alternative procurement procedures. |
Finland | The competitive dialogue procedure seems to be used quite often for procurement of IT contracts. However, no contract notices involving the use of the competitive dialogue procedure for PPP have been published during the reviewed period. | No contract notices relating to alternative procurement procedures have been published during the reviewed period. |
Germany | The competitive dialogue procedure is rarely used. Available for review: 9 contract notices | The majority of PPP projects are procured using the negotiated procedure. Available for review: In excess of 100 contract notices |
Greece | There seem to be no contract notices involving the competitive dialogue procedure. | PPP projects seem to be procured using the restricted procedure. Available for review: 1 contract notice |
Hungary | There seem to be no contract notices involving the competitive dialogue procedure. | The majority of PPP projects seem to be procured using the negotiated procedure. The only other alternative procurement procedure used in Hungary seems to be the open procedure; however, it is used to a much lesser extent. Available for review: 2 contract notices; 2 contract award notices |
Ireland | The competitive dialogue procedure has been used relatively extensively prior to the outbreak of the recent financial crisis. Available for review: 7 contract notices; 1 contract award notices | Alternative existing PPP projects have been procured using the negotiated and restricted procedures. Available for review: 2 contract award notices |
Italy | No contract notices involving the competitive dialogue procedure have been published during the reviewed period. The use of the competitive dialogue procedure is suspended until the entry in force of the implementing regulation of the Code of public contract (Code). | Alternative procurement routes are used to approximately equal extent. Available for review: 12 contract notices; 9 contract award notices |
Malta | There seem to be no contract notices involving the competitive dialogue procedure. | The restricted procedure seems to be used for PPP procurements. Available for review: 1 contract notice; 1 contract award notice |
Netherlands | Competitive dialogue is the default procurement option. Available for review: 5 contract notices; 6 contract award notices | No contract notices relating to alternative procurement procedures have been published during the reviewed period. |
Poland | The competitive dialogue is one of the procedures used in PPP procurements in Poland. Available for review: 7 contract notices; 2 contract award notices | The negotiated procedure seems to be used as an alternative to competitive dialogue for PPP procurements. Available for review: 4 contract notices |
Portugal | There seem to be no contract notices involving the competitive dialogue procedure. | The open procedure seems to be frequently used for PPP procurements. There also seem to be certain usage preferences sector-wise. Most of transport PPPs seem to be procured using the open procedure (government's road programme), while most of healthcare projects seem to be procured using the negotiated procedure. Available for review: 12 contract notices; 14 contract award notices |
Romania | The competitive dialogue procedure does not seem to be used frequently. Available for review: 1 contract notices; 1 contract award notices | The open procedure is frequently used for procurement of concessions. |
Slovakia | 3 PPP road projects have been procured using the special "concession dialogue" procedure. This procedure reflects all the features of the competitive dialogue procedure as the latter is envisaged in the Procurement Directive and was used prior to the legislative decision to extend the use of the competitive dialogue procedure in Slovakia to concessions. | The open and negotiated procedures are equally used in PPP procurements. Available for review: 4 contract notices; 4 contract award notices |
Spain | The competitive dialogue procedure is not frequently used. Available for review: 1 contract notice; 1 contract award notice | The majority of PPP projects are procured using the open procedure. Available for review: 14 contract notices; 14 contract award notices |
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30 The size of the sample would not have been manageable in the context of this survey: over 1000 competitive dialogue procurements have been launched in each of the UK and France, across all types of projects.
31 More than 100 PPP/PFI projects using competitive dialogue have been procured in each of the United Kingdom and France by the end of 2009.