European Defense Procurement: A particular approach

Abstract

This article refers the important role that public procurement in the defense sector plays in the European internal market, indicating the set of special features, resulting from the nature of military goods and services related to it. These particularities have been recognized since the founding of the Community through a derogation enshrined in the Treaty, to which it corresponds, at present, the art.º 346 TFEU. Besides, this article still makes a brief reference to the arrangements for these contracts in the new directives on public procurement, approved this year. And the conclusion is that, due to the resistance of Member States in order to give up one of their most powerful instruments of sovereignty, the European institutions have a long road ahead in consolidating a genuine common market in defense sector.