Context Matters:Reassessing Competition in European Public Procurement Law

This article argues that the uniform application of competitive procedures in European public procurement law fails to account for the social and institutional diversity across procurement contexts. It demonstrates that the legal framework treats competition as a default mechanism, without sufficiently questioning its normative justification or practical effects. Drawing on theoretical insights from Martin, Claassen, and Hussain, the article develops an evaluative framework for adversarial schemes and applies it to two contrasting scenarios: ICT procurement by a central government and youth care procurement by a local authority. The analysis shows that while competition may be effective in the former, it can be harmful in the latter—undermining trust, recognition, and civic solidarity. The article concludes that competition should not be viewed as an end in itself nor as the only viable tool for ensuring transparency and fairness. Instead, contracting authorities should be granted democratic discretion to adopt context-sensitive procurement models, including cooperative schemes, where appropriate. This would allow European public procurement law to better serve its underlying purpose: The fair and just distribution of primary social goods in liberal democracies.