Privatised services and the concept of ‘bodies governed by public law’ in EC directives on public procurement

Article abstract:

The privatisation wave that has swept Europe since the mid-1980s has shown that privatisation is closely connected with the problems of the liberalisation of the market for public procurement contracts in various ways. This contribution will focus on the concept of 'bodies governed by public law' in the EC Directives on Public Procurement, because these privatised institutions, which also perform government tasks or retain relations with the government, can fall within the scope of this concept and-as a result-are obliged to invite tenders. In addition, this concept plays a decisive role in determining whether a public service contract within the meaning of these directives can be directly awarded on the basis of Article 6 of the Public Services Contracts Directive 92/50/EEC, in other words, in answering the question of whether, in the framework of privatisation, the government body that initiates the privatisation can give a 'dowry' to the privatised service without a European tendering procedure.

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