Many stakeholders express support for a horizontal PPP initiative, be it in the form of a binding or a non-binding instrument. Such an initiative is proposed to cover at least the following issues: generally applicable procedural rules, a clear definition of PPPs, general principles and compulsory advance publication of invitations to tender. The reasons given for such a horizontal initiative include the need to increase legal certainty, make procedures transparent, save time and money and more generally to encourage competition.
Many contributors are explicitly opposed to such an initiative. They argue that PPPs and public contracts are too different from each other to be subject to the same rules, that setting up PPPs remains a matter for the Member States, that overregulation impedes rather than promotes PPPs and that there has not been thorough analysis nor sufficient experience, in particular with the implementation of the new Public Procurement Directives. Stakeholders supporting these arguments refer, however, to the possibility of revisiting this question once sufficient analysis and experience has been built up.