Category: European Union

Buenos Aires – International Congress on Public Procurement

On November 2, 2026 GW Law’s alumna Genoveva Ferrero (pictured) co-chaired, at the University of Buenos Aires’ School of Law, the International Conference on Public Procurement and 1st International Conference on Public and Administrative Law. The annual conference brings together leaders in procurement from across Argentina, and from around the world.

GW Law’s Professor Christopher Yukins joined a panel focused on “Global Experiences and New Agreements: The Impact of the Mercosur–European Union Agreement on Public Procurement.” His presentation assessed how the EU-Mercosur trade agreement may intersect with the European Union’s proposed regulation on public procurement (the EU “Public Procurement Act.” (See webinar linked below.) He noted that the “European Preferences” built into the EU’s proposed regulation may leave EU-based vendors with an asymmetrical advantage compared to their counterparts in the Mercosur nations.

Nations Joining EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement (source: Treehill)

Professor Yukins also discussed the many parallels between the EU-Mercosur trade agreement and the WTO Government Procurement Agreement — parallels that suggest that the Mercosur nations (such as Argentina and Brazil) could, if they chose, seek to join the GPA to give their vendors access to broader public procurement markets worldwide.

GW Law Webinar: EU Procurement Reforms — An International Perspective


The EU Public Procurement Regulation: A U.S. Perspective

The European Union’s proposed regulation governing public procurement, the “Public Procurement Act,” was published in September 2026. This brief article reviews key elements of the legislation — competitive methods, e-procurement, and a new “European Preference” — from a U.S. perspective. 

Citation: Christopher R. Yukins, The EU Public Procurement Regulation: A U.S. Perspective, 68 Gov. Contractor ¶ 229 (Thomson Reuters, Sept. 2026)

EU Public Procurement Act – US Perspective – C Yukins – As PublishedDownload

A related webinar will be held on October 5, 2026:

GW Law Webinar: EU Procurement Reforms — An International Perspective

Procurement Law Briefing: Kosovo

On July 17, 2026, GW Law’s Christopher Yukins presented on international procurement developments to senior attorneys and procurement officials in Pristina, Kosovo. The program was run by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP).

The session was coordinated by Shaya Tavaf and Melinda Zanner of CLDP and joined by Caroline Nicholas, who, as a member of the secretariat, played a key role in developing the 2011 version of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Public Procurement.

European Commission Office, Pristina

The session looked to Kosovo’s e-procurement system, the nation’s existing procurement law and regulations, and potential changes in the European Union’s procurement guidance. Kosovo is seeking admission to the European Union as a Member State. As part of that process, Kosovo has an association agreement with the EU, under which (per Article 79) Kosovo promises generally to follow the EU’s lead in procurement regulation.

Dutch Association for Procurement Law – 30th Anniversary Conference

GW Law’s Professor Christopher Yukins addressed the Dutch Association for Procurement Law (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Aanbestedingsrecht) in Ede, the Netherlands, on November 20, 2025 (slides) on procurement for innovation on both sides of the Atlantic (photo at right). The association was established in 1995 and celebrated its lustrum (30 years) at the conference. The association has 750 members who work as public officials, in law firms, in the academy, in the courts, in consultancies and across the private sector; the Dutch association is, in many ways, remarkably similar to the ABA’s Public Contract Law Section.

Professors Willem Janssen (University of Utrecht) and Sarah Schoenmaekers (Maastricht University & Hasselt University) (pictured at left) kindly hosted Chris Yukins. Professor Schoenmaekers will be joining GW Law’s December 3-5, 2025 symposia on procurement for innovation.

Photos credit: Willem Janssen

International Anti-Corruption Day — IACA’s Role in Anti-Corruption and Public Procurement

On December 9, 2024, in celebration of International Anti-Corruption Day, GW Law’s Christopher Yukins will join the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) to discuss IACA’s future contributions to global efforts to fight corruption in public procurement.

Our work over the years with IACA has allowed us to explore how risk-based anti-corruption strategies complement – and strengthen – public procurement outcomes. Bid challenges (protests), for example, and contractor compliance, debarments and legislative oversight — all of these mitigate both the risks of failure in public procurement and the risks of corruption. The next step will be to integrate those risk-based anti-corruption strategies with international best practices, such as through the OECD and the European Union’s forthcoming revised procurement directives.

Invitation to IACA’s December 9, 2024 Webinar

Innovation Through Procurement: Across Europe

Spurred by the report on The Future of European Competitiveness led by former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, institutions across Europe are examining how to promote innovation through public procurement. On November 13-14, 2024, GW Law’s Christopher Yukins met with his colleagues in Europe about these ongoing initiatives.

Photo: C. Yukins, N. Meershoek, W. Jannsen, E. Manunza, Elior Korem

At the University of Utrecht’s School of Law, Professor Yukins met with Professor Elisabetta Manunza and her team to discuss academic cooperation between the EU and U.S. procurement research communities. Among other things, they discussed ongoing research with NATO’s Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA). University of Utrecht Associate Professor Willem Janssen and University of Auckland professor Marta Andhov have dealt often with issues of innovation through procurement in their award-winning podcast, BESTEK. Utrecht Assistant Professor Nathan Meershoek has written extensively on the challenges of innovation in defense procurement; NATO’s unit to foster innovative technology, DIANA, is one answer to those challenges.

DIANA was established by NATO to find and accelerate dual-use innovation capacity across the Alliance. DIANA provides companies with the resources, networks and guidance to develop deep technologies to solve critical defense and security challenges.

Professor Yukins also met with Stephan Corvers and his team in s-Hertogenbosch. The CORVERS consultants are legal experts in strategic public procurement, innovation and contracting. CORVERS has been asked to help assess best practices in procurement for innovation, from around the world, on behalf of the European Assistance For Innovation Procurement – EAFIP, an initiative financed by the European Commission (DG CONNECT) to provide local assistance to public procurers to promote innovation and best practices.

A few days after those meetings, the European Commission announced a series of initiatives to advance innovation in procurement. Those initiatives included a public consultation on possible updates to the EU procurement directives — including, importantly, a review of how the directives might be updated to foster innovation.

Stockholm Public Procurement Conference 2024 – U.S./EU Convergence on Debarment and Beyond

Stockholm City Hall photo: Julian Herzog

Andrea Sundstrand

David Drabkin, Daniel Schoeni and Christopher Yukins spoke at the “Upphandlings-Konferensen” (“Public Procurement Conference”) held in Stockholm on April 25-26, 2024. The conference was very kindly hosted by Professor Andrea Sundstrand of Stockholm University.

David Drabkin

Dave Drabkin and Chris Yukins’ presentation, drawing on their report on debarment for the Acquisition Innovation Research Center, addressed convergence of the contractor exclusion/debarment systems in the United States and the European Union. A recent decision by the Court of Justice for the European Union, Infraestruturas de Portugal SA, explained that the EU Public Procurement Directive should be read to mean that procuring agencies in the EU have clear first authority to handle vendor exclusions and to assess vendors’ misconduct and remedial measures — from the U.S. perspective, a critical step in building effective risk-based debarment regimes in Europe to allow agencies to manage supply chain risk. (For background on the Infraestruturas decision, see Adrian Brown‘s recent piece in the Public Procurement Law Review and Albert Sanchez-Graell’s insightful analysis.)

Daniel Schoeni

Daniel Schoeni’s presentation — which was very well-received by the assembly of Swedish procurement attorneys — reviewed the parallels between the EU and the U.S. systems. Drawing on his PhD thesis at the University of Nottingham, Dan Schoeni explained that while the legal frameworks in the U.S. and the EU are remarkably similar, their foundations and implementations vary widely because of their different histories, politics and perspectives.

EU Defense Procurement and the European Court of Justice

Professor Andrea Sundstrand – Stockholm University

Please feel free to join this interesting presentation on EU defense procurement and the decisions of the European Court of Justice. Professor Sundstrand of Stockholm University will discuss her article on the intersection of Member State autonomy over defense matters and the European Union’s authority to direct procurement rules.

Wednesday, 14 February 2024 – 3 pm – GW Law School, 2000 H Street NW, Washington DC – Stockton 306

For further information: cyukins@law.gwu.edu

Presentation slides