Turning point in public procurement law – European Commission draws up proposal for EU Public Procurement Regulation

EU public procurement law is likely to undergo one of the most significant reforms in its history. The European Commission intends to modernise and simplify the EU-wide public procurement rules.

To this end, the European Commission first carried out a comprehensive evaluation of Directives 2014/24/EU, 2014/23/EU and 2014/25/EU over the past two years. On 14 October 2025, it published the results in a working document, which drew a mixed conclusion with regard to the intended objectives. In addition, on 3 November 2025, the European Commission launched an EU‑wide consultation. Stakeholders from the legal and academic communities were able to submit comments until 26 January 2026 on how the existing provisions could be improved and which changes should be reflected in the legislative proposal.

As part of this recently concluded consultation phase, Noerr also submitted an expert opinion on the reform of EU public procurement law. In this opinion, public procurement lawyers and experts Julian von Lucius, Carsten Bringmann and Salomo Ortega Sawal welcomed the European Commission’s plans to modernise and accelerate public procurement and set out regulatory proposals across various strategic action areas intended to provide pioneering impetus for a forward‑looking and flexible legal framework.

The European Commission had planned to draw up a corresponding legislative proposal in the second quarter of 2026 based on the consultation results (see our Noerr Insight of 20 April 2026) (only available in German). Although this timetable has now been postponed until September 2026, a wide-ranging and trailblazing Commission proposal has recently been made public. Since then it has been clear that an EU Public Procurement Regulation applicable directly across the Union is to apply uniformly to all public procurement contracts above the thresholds in future. Public procurement law is set to become a powerful strategic and economic policy tool.

Both contracting authorities and companies will therefore have to navigate this uncharted regulatory territory in a way that is both economically successful and in full legal compliance if they want to unlock its far-reaching economic potential and still stay ahead in a competitive market.

In this Noerr Insight, we outline the various areas for action covered by the proposed EU Public Procurement Regulation (see A) and provide an overview of the key elements of the public procurement reform (see B). We then place the reforms in the broader procurement law context (see C) and close with a look ahead at what companies and contracting authorities should prepare for now in order to turn the procurement reforms into lasting economic success (see D).

A. Normative areas for action and regulatory objectives

At the core of the Commission’s proposal is the replacement of Directives 2014/24/EU, 2014/23/EU and 2014/25/EU with a single, directly applicable regulation that brings together in a single legal act the rules on public contracts, utilities procurement and concessions, which were previously regulated separately.

The reform proposal essentially implements four key guiding principles which shape the normative requirements. It seeks not only to simplify procurement regulation but above all to streamline it and make it more coherent (see I.). At the same time, procurement law is becoming a tailored strategic tool (see II.) and is intended to improve economic security and strengthen the EU’s strategic autonomy (see III.). Finally, access to information, data and digital tools in public procurement are to be made easier (IV.).

I. Simplifying and increasing the flexibility of the regulatory framework

The Commission’s key instrument for implementing its policy objective of simplifying and making the harmonised rules more flexible is at the outset not the rules themselves, but rather – and this involves two landmark decisions – the choice of one regulation as the legislative instrument. By consolidating the previously separate rules governing public procurement, concessions and sector activities into a single legal instrument, it first removes the complexity and inconsistencies caused by the coexistence of separate instruments and different national transposition choices. At the same time, as a legal act, a regulation has direct effect throughout the Union, without the need for any intervening national implementing measures.

The next step is to achieve simplification and greater flexibility at the level of substance as well, above all through a complete overhaul of the procedures and how they work.

In future, the standard procedure is to be an open-negotiated procedure under which any interested economic operator may submit a tender and the contracting authority will decide whether selection criteria apply and whether negotiations take place; however, those negotiations must initially be open to all non-excluded and suitable economic operators. If the contracting authority decides to negotiate in several rounds, it may gradually reduce the number of tenderers.

This standard procedure is to be supplemented by a dynamic simplified procedure for recurring purchases of standard solutions and by an innovation partnership procedure for the development and procurement of innovative solutions that are not yet available on the market.

Furthermore, contracting authorities are to be required to publish a procurement plan at the start of each budgetary period in order to improve the predictability and transparency of future procurement and increase the level of competition by enabling companies to prepare more effectively for upcoming procurement procedures. Market consultations already provided for under the current framework are to be made clearer and promoted as a standard preparatory tool.

II. Increasing the uptake of strategic procurement

A central aim of the public procurement reforms is to recast procurement law as a strategic economic policy tool. The Regulation is thus intended to establish a coherent architecture for integrating strategic objectives into procurement design, award and contract performance.

The reforms place particular emphasis on the mandatory best price‑quality ratio, under which quality considerations must always be taken into account. In future, public contracts and concessions will generally be awarded primarily on the basis of qualitative criteria, which must represent at least 30% of the overall evaluation, rising to at least 50% for labour‑intensive contracts.

In addition, the Commission’s proposal specifically addresses the various policy areas relating to sustainable, socially responsible and innovative procurement by dynamically expanding the scope for action available to contracting authorities.

III. Improving EU economic security and strategic autonomy

The reforms to public procurement law are centrally guided by the need to respond effectively to the growing geopolitical significance of public procurement.

Contracting authorities are therefore not only entitled but also obliged to take into account all risks affecting the security and public safety interests of the Union or the Member States, including risks relating to critical infrastructure, sensitive information, cybersecurity, harmful strategic dependencies, supply disruptions and undue third‑country influence.

This objective relates in particular to the participation of economic operators from third countries in procurement procedures, which the Regulation is specifically intended to regulate. Contracting authorities are to be provided with effective tools to ensure fair competition, while at the same time safeguarding national and European security interests and technological sovereignty.

The Regulation consistently distinguishes between economic operators and products that fall within the scope of the Union’s international procurement obligations, such as the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), and those that do not. Economic operators falling within that scope must be granted unrestricted access to the European procurement market. To support implementation, the Commission will make available an online tool to help contracting authorities determine coverage in a legally compliant manner.

At the same time, contracting authorities may impose specific requirements in order to apply a preference for European products in procurement procedures, including by restricting participation or requiring a minimum proportion of goods of EU origin. In this context, reference is made to the judgments of the ECJ in the Kolin case, C-652/22, and the Qingdao case, C-266/22, which confirm that economic operators from third countries not covered by an international public procurement agreement such as the GPA have no right of access to the Union public procurement market and, even where a contracting authority does allow their participation, do not thereby acquire subjective rights as candidates or tenderers.

IV. Digitalisation and the reduction of administrative burdens in public procurement

A key finding of the evaluation carried out of the existing procurement rules was that the digital ecosystem for public procurement is highly fragmented, largely non-interoperable and gives rise to avoidable administrative burdens. The European Commission wishes to address this identified obstacle through a highly integrated digital approach.

In particular, the aim is to create a common digital ecosystem based on an interoperability network, enabling contracting authorities and economic operators using different procurement platforms to communicate through interoperable digital services. A key component of this is the implementation of an electronic eligibility service based on digital evidence and declarations, implementing the once-only principle.

B. Structure and content of the draft EU Public Procurement Regulation

Building on these objectives and strategic areas of action, the European Commission has now published the draft EU Public Procurement Regulation. This draft, comprising 144 articles divided into seven parts, lays the groundwork for a far‑reaching reform of EU public procurement law.

Below, we outline the regulatory framework and the key provisions of the draft Regulation.

I. General principles and grounds for exclusion

The first two parts of the EU Public Procurement Regulation set out the general provisions on its scope and the fundamental principles of public procurement law. These principles of public procurement law are based on European primary law. They require contracting authorities to treat economic operators equally and without discrimination, to act transparently and proportionately, and to award contracts and concessions on a competitive basis; they also form the central principles in this context.

It is further provided that the award of public contracts must ensure the best value for money while at the same time preventing any unjustified restrictions on competition. The relevant thresholds for public contracts and concessions are updated directly in the Regulation, with the European Commission being authorised to amend them by means of delegated acts.

At the same time, in addition to the thresholds, the material and personal scope of application of EU public procurement law is defined, including, in particular, the status of a contracting authority and the concepts of “public contract” and “concession”, which are consistent with the previous legal position in this respect. On the side of economic operators, the Regulation correspondingly defines the possible forms of participation and involvement of third parties, namely consortia of candidates and tenderers, subcontractors and reliance on the capacities of other entities.

A new element of considerable practical relevance is the proposal that a contract may no longer be subcontracted in its entirety, a measure by which the Commission seeks to prevent the exploitation of workers. General contractor models previously regarded as permissible could therefore be called into question.

The revised grounds for exclusion are also laid down. At present, the grounds for excluding economic operators are spread across various sector‑specific legal acts; the EU Public Procurement Regulation is now intended to consolidate and reform the structure of these exclusion grounds.

In future, twelve mandatory grounds for exclusion linked to serious criminal offences are to be brought together in the EU Public Procurement Regulation in order to ensure coherence across the entire EU public procurement framework. These will be supplemented by seven optional grounds for exclusion, which broadly correspond to the existing optional exclusion grounds.

A key change, which companies in particular should take careful note of, is that mandatory grounds for exclusion will in future no longer be capable of being remedied through self‑cleaning measures (see Recital 17 of the EU Public Procurement Regulation). Economic operators in respect of which mandatory grounds for exclusion exist will therefore no longer be able to avoid exclusion by implementing self‑cleaning measures. For optional grounds for exclusion, this possibility will remain.

II. Types of procedures and strategic tools

The completely revised types of procedure are set out in Part 3 of the EU Public Procurement Regulation. In future, the following procedures will be available to contracting authorities:

• Open-negotiated procedure as the standard procedure: Under this procedure, the contracting authority decides whether, and which, selection criteria it wishes to apply. Any interested company may then submit a tender. If the contracting authority decides not to conduct negotiations, it awards the contract to the “best offer”, i.e. the company offering the best price‑quality ratio. If, however, the contracting authority chooses to negotiate, it must initially conduct negotiations with every suitable, non‑excluded company, which in practice may act as a significant impediment and source of delay.
• Dynamic simplified procedure: This procedure is intended for the acquisition of standard solutions for recurring needs from a large number of economic operators. Contracting authorities may not set selection criteria but instead publish a needs plan together with the procurement information. Economic operators can then express their interest in the procedure by submitting their eligibility profile via the eligibility system. Contracting authorities may subsequently invite at least five companies either to take part in negotiations or, where no negotiations are to be held, to submit tenders. A particular feature of this procedure is that contracting authorities may use a random, algorithm‑based selection to determine which five companies to invite, a mechanism that must be viewed critically in light of the objectives of procurement law.
• Innovation challenge procedure: The innovation challenge procedure is designed as a procedure type for societal challenges. It consists of several phases, starting with market consultation, followed by the selection of proposed solutions and subsequent testing, validation and assessment, culminating in the commercial purchase of the supplies, services or works arising from the validated solutions. Contracting authorities specify in the procurement documents which requirements or milestones must be met in order to progress from one phase to the next.

Prior to individual procurement procedures, contracting authorities are also required at the start of each budgetary period to publish a needs plan indicating their indicative planned expenditure with a view to informing the market about intended procurements; this plan may be adjusted during the year and does not oblige the contracting authority to proceed with the procurements announced.

In addition, the Regulation defines the strategic elements of procurement law that will significantly shape the design and conduct of public procurement in the areas of sustainability, social responsibility, innovation, security and resilience, as well as European preference.

This part of the Regulation also brings together the cross‑cutting provisions already familiar from the existing procurement framework on key aspects of the procedure, including, among others, the division into lots, confidentiality and accompanying record‑keeping obligations, time limits and price reviews for abnormally low tenders.

A major innovation arises in particular in relation to the award criteria. The contract must always be awarded to the tender offering the best price‑quality ratio. In future, a minimum share of quality criteria will be required within the award criteria: as a rule, the weighting of quality criteria must account for at least 30 per cent of the total points available. For contracts that are labour‑intensive in nature, the weighting of quality criteria must be at least 50 per cent of the total points available. Departures from this are permitted only where the quality of performance is ensured by other means. This marks a clear departure from the previous discretion enjoyed by contracting authorities in determining the relative weight of price‑ and quality‑related award criteria and is intended to reflect the growing importance of quality in public procurement (see Recital 40 of the EU Public Procurement Regulation).

III. Concessions

Part 4 deals specifically with concessions but also lays down further provisions for the post‑award contract management phase, notably on contract modifications and termination, as well as on monitoring and performance evaluation. Certain specific exemptions will continue to apply to concessions in order to take account of their particular characteristics.

IV. Digitalisation and interoperability

Part 5 establishes the framework for the digital ecosystem designed to support the Union‑wide digitalisation of procurement procedures and the reduction of administrative burdens. It lays down interoperability rules for a secure data‑exchange network in public procurement, enabling electronic communication between contracting authorities and economic operators across different procurement platforms. A particularly important feature for businesses is the once‑only principle, under which equivalent eligibility documents and declarations need only be submitted once.

V. Transparency requirements and final provisions

The final two parts of the EU Public Procurement Regulation set out key transparency requirements and oblige each Member State to establish a national public procurement data space in order to centralise and improve access to procurement data. Each Member State must also designate a national coordinating authority to oversee and coordinate implementation and adopt appropriate measures to strengthen the professionalisation of public procurement as a long‑term, strategic element of public governance.

In addition, the Regulation provides for a review by the European Commission every seven years in which the practical experience gained and the effects of the Regulation on the achievement of its policy objectives are to be critically assessed.

Part 7 also contains the provisions repealing the existing Directives 2014/23/EU, 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU.

C. Analysis of the draft reform

The two decisive choices made by the European Commission are of fundamental importance for the procurement reforms. These are, first, to consolidate Directives 2014/23/EU, 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU into a single instrument and, second, to refrain from further amending those Directives and instead to propose a Regulation. At the national level, this legislative approach will mean that the existing public procurement rules contained in Part 4 of the German Act against Restraints of Competition (Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen) have to be repealed by the legislature, except for the provisions on legal protection in public procurement and on defence‑ and security‑specific requirements. The corresponding secondary legislation, i.e. the German Public Procurement Regulation (Vergabeverordnung), the German Concession Procurement Regulation (Konzessionsvergabeverordnung) and the German Sectoral Regulation (Sektorenverordnung) will likewise cease to apply. The recently enacted and controversial German Procurement Acceleration Act (Vergabebeschleunigungsgesetz) would also become largely redundant.

While the consolidation and harmonisation of procurement rules is to be welcomed in terms of coherence and uniform interpretation, the choice of a regulation raises significant concerns in view of the direct applicability of its provisions. Once it has entered into force, a regulation will apply generally and be binding in all Member States. Although this change of system does not affect national administrative structures or budgetary and financial arrangements, it does run counter to the flexibility of the individual Member States in choosing the means of implementation.

It is also worth noting that the EU Public Procurement Regulation leaves Defence Directive 2009/81/EC untouched. The fact that the particularly sensitive field of defence and security is excluded from the reform, and thus falls outside a genuinely uniform framework, is significant. Public procurement in this area is gaining increasing importance in order to rapidly and significantly strengthen national and European defence capabilities in light of the geopolitical situation, and this exclusion may be due to the strong influence of national security interests in this sector. Those interests make it difficult to subject this sector to a detailed regulation. However, the choice of legal instrument in this respect is not set in stone.

The comprehensive revision of the procedural regimes still appears in the current draft to be in its infancy and in need of a fundamental re‑working that is convincing both from a regulatory perspective and in terms of legislative technique. The proposed types of procedure appear overall to create significantly greater potential for new risk factors and obstacles to procurement than for making contract awards more efficient, simple and flexible.

The welcome focus on strategic procurement, including the specific emphasis on technological sovereignty, security interests and resilience, is likely to transform public procurement much more visibly into a “Made in Europe” market. By enabling contracting authorities to promote European preferences, impose production requirements and manage third‑country participation, competition will inevitably take place primarily at the level of qualitative award criteria.

The draft reform therefore goes far beyond a mere revision and instead amounts to a paradigm shift: public procurement law is no longer viewed simply as a body of rules governing the expenditure of public funds, but as an essential strategic and economic policy lever in a geopolitical context.

D. Summary and outlook: quo vadis EU procurement law?

Public procurement accounts for more than 15% of both national and EU GDP, meaning that large‑scale contract awards above the EU thresholds are among the most important economic decisions taken at national and Union level. For companies, this opens up attractive opportunities not only to develop new business areas, but also to access new markets across the Union.

The procurement framework is therefore of critical importance for corporate decision‑making and commercial success. Contracting authorities, for their part, face the risk that a rigid set of rules may be unable to keep pace with numerous procurement‑specific and geopolitical challenges. At the same time, the draft Regulation places a significant additional burden of responsibility on contracting authorities to pursue strategic procurement objectives in a targeted manner, with much of this responsibility being placed directly on them. This shift in responsibility is in particular a consequence of the choice of a regulation as the legal instrument and, unlike in the case of a directive, can be mitigated far less by national legislators.

Economic operators and contracting authorities should treat the draft EU Public Procurement Regulation as an advanced indicative proposal, while bearing in mind that a number of its provisions are still likely to undergo substantial change. The presentation of the Commission’s legislative proposal has already been postponed to September 2026.

Nonetheless, it is already advisable to engage with the draft at this point, not least in order to help shape the legislative process.

It is important to adapt at an early stage to policy directions on which there now appears to be broad political consensus. These include viewing public procurement from a strategic and economic policy perspective in the areas of innovation, sovereignty, European self‑sufficiency and resilience, which is likely to result in a marked preference for “Made in Europe”. Production, trading and supply chains should be structured so that they can not only withstand contracting authorities’ requirements on European preference in legal terms but also remain commercially competitive. This applies not only to the company itself, but also to procurement‑related third‑party arrangements such as subcontractors or entities whose capacities are relied upon.

Finally, both companies and contracting authorities should deepen their familiarity with national pricing rules and, particularly in highly innovative areas where there are no established market offerings, align their pricing and costing with the prospect of more intensive scrutiny.

It is already evident that procurement procedures will in future become significantly more interconnected and digital. These developments will, regardless of their precise final shape, deliver appreciable efficiency gains for those economic operators that familiarise themselves at an early stage, both legally and technically, with the envisaged options. Competitiveness in this area will likewise depend on the ability to adapt and transform operational processes.

It will be some time before the new rules come into force. It is expected that the European Commission will present a finalised legislative proposal before the end of this quarter, which will then enter the EU legislative process, making adoption by the European Parliament in 2027 likely. The draft provides for a two-year transition period so that the new Regulation would apply at the earliest in the first half of 2029.

The now‑public draft EU Public Procurement Regulation marks a watershed in procurement law which, owing to the breadth of the changes, will reshuffle the deck for many businesses. Early implementation of the strategic action areas outlined above, which the new framework will ultimately reflect, will be the decisive key to success for both economic operators and contracting authorities.

We will continue to monitor the legislative initiative and the EU law‑making process closely and will report regularly on further developments.