Review of the European Union’s Regulation Regarding Defence Procurement

Although the EU legal framework applicable to defence procurements is – given its very nature – of particular importance, very little structured information is available about it. Defence procurements have special status within the European public procurements, given their potential impacts on the essential (national) security interests of the Member States. The European regulation sets forth a legal framework for Member States, and it is the Member States that are liable for meeting the basic intentions of this regulation. The European Commission (if necessary, together with the Court of Justice of the European Union) ensures the compliance of the national legislations with the EU law, just as well the proper application of the aforementioned rules. The present article summarises the European legal framework specifically applicable to defence procurements, examines the transposition of the relevant EU directive, and certain additional interesting aspects. Due to obvious constraints, the detailed analysis of the laws of each Member State with regard to defence procurement is not possible – even though this is a very important further aspect to the topic. Also, one should be conscious about the fact that in case of defence procurements there are even more factors to be considered, such as international law or the security of supply