Project partner TENDERIX – The first AI for public procurementPrepared by Dominik Žlebek
Ordinary legislative procedure under Article 294 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. Steps marked as expected follow the usual course of the procedure; they are not announced dates. This page is updated as the procedure moves on.
The President of the Commission announced the revision of the procurement directives in the Political Guidelines for 2024–2029, and the Commission included it in its work programme. The need for change was stressed in the reports by Mario Draghi on competitiveness and Enrico Letta on the single market.
The Commission gathered evidence for its impact assessment and at the same time ran a questionnaire-based public consultation. The call for evidence received 746 contributions and 1,037 respondents answered the questionnaire. Public buyers, companies, industry associations, NGOs and trade unions took part.
The Commission published the proposal for a Regulation on public contracts and concessions, repealing Directives 2014/23/EU, 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU. It came with Annexes 1 to 8, the impact assessment SWD(2026) 591, its summary SWD(2026) 592 and the subsidiarity grid SWD(2026) 590. So far only in English; the Commission will add the official language versions on EUR-Lex later.
The proposal goes to the European Parliament and the Council, which decide on it jointly. National parliaments have eight weeks to check compliance with the principle of subsidiarity. Referral to the responsible committee of Parliament and the appointment of a rapporteur are the first visible steps.
The European Economic and Social Committee and the European Committee of the Regions give their opinions on the proposal. Consulting them is mandatory, but their opinions do not bind the legislators.
The rapporteur presents a draft report, members table amendments and the committee votes on them. For public procurement the responsible committee is usually the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO). This stage tends to be the longest, and its documents often stay in English only for a long time.
In parallel, experts from the Member States examine the proposal in a Council working party. The usual outcome is a general approach, the Council's negotiating position approved by ministers.
The plenary of Parliament adopts its negotiating position. From then on both sides have their texts and negotiations can begin.
Representatives of Parliament, the Council and the Commission look for a compromise text in trilogues. The result is a provisional agreement, which both institutions then confirm.
Parliament and the Council adopt the final text, which is then signed and published in the Official Journal of the EU in all official languages. Only then do official versions exist in all EU languages.
Under Article 149 of the proposal, the Regulation enters into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal.
The proposal provides for a two-year period before the Regulation applies. Only from that date will procurement actually follow the Regulation, and the current directives will cease to apply at the same time. Until then, the existing rules and national public procurement laws continue to apply.
Last updated 2026-09-13. Do you know of a step that is missing here? Write to [email protected].