Zagreb, 11 November 2025 – Key issues necessary for shaping European public procurement in the next decade were opened and discussed at the conference Public Procurement – A New Way Forward, jointly organized by the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb and the State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures (DKOM).
At the Faculty of Law premises, domestic, European and international experts provided constructive and concrete insights into the content of the new European Union public procurement directive, which is expected to be proposed in the next year or two.
The host of the conference, Assoc. Prof. Marko Turudić, Head of the Study Centre for Public Administration and Public Finance, highlighted in his opening address the positive aspects of the Croatian public procurement system, but also the existing challenges that the profession faces:
“At the national level, there is much to be proud of – a community of top experts from all areas of procurement, quality lifelong learning programmes, comprehensive public procurement education, an effective and reputable legal protection body, and a long-standing tradition of exchanging ideas and good practices.
However, all of us working in this field know that challenges remain. These include the persistent perception of legal protection as a hindrance rather than protection, the lack of a clear normative definition of public procurement contracts as administrative contracts, and the almost complete ‘privatisation’ of contract performance, which is best reflected in the frequency of private arbitration in dispute resolution.
That is why the adoption of a new European framework for public procurement is extremely important.”
DKOM President Maja Kuhar highlighted the importance of the moment in which the European public procurement framework is being re-examined:
“We are aware that we live in challenging times, and public procurement is not spared either. The European Commission is revising the public procurement directives, and for the first time in a long time we have the opportunity to shape the future rules for spending public money.”
The conference brought together leading experts and academics from Europe and the United States, who discussed the issues of legal protection in public procurement, sustainable public procurement, as well as the future European legislative framework through four thematic panels.
Professor François Lichère from Jean Moulin University Lyon 3, an expert in sustainable public procurement, EU law and comparative administrative law, with a particular focus on judicial protection, highlighted the key priorities of the new European directive:
“To adopt the new directive, it is essential to bring together public procurement experts from Europe and the US, because they all have different experiences. However, in the European context, it is most important to see to what extent the common EU rules are applied in national systems, even though they are culturally different.
Initially, the main objective of the reform was to increase the competitiveness of countries, but this has changed due to the international context, such as the war in Ukraine and the change of presidency in the US. As a result, the focus has shifted to resilience and simplification of rules, because they need to be effective.”
https://www.youtube.com/live/jH4hpk0-T2c?si=U8pCFxZBmFLL7EYC
