Public Procurement Law: Key International Developments in 2014 — Part I: An American Perspective on the New European Public Procurement Directives

The year 2014 saw major developments in European public procurement law, as a number of new procurement directives finally came into force. This paper focuses on the two elements of the new European Union procurement directive, 2014/24/EU, most likely to affect the U.S. procurement community: new flexibility in the use of best-value negotiations, and expanded grounds for excluding potential contractors, for corruption or otherwise. The paper also will discuss how the new procurement directive may affect ongoing trade negotiations, especially between the United States and Europe under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)