It is common practice across the EU that candidates or tenderers who have committed criminal offenses or have proven to be unreliable on other grounds can be excluded from participating in public procurement procedures.

Having said that, the EU legislator recognizes that everyone deserves a second chance, also within the context of tender procedures, by introducing the ‘self-cleaning’ option. This enables candidates or tenderers who have exhibited such misbehavior that would generally make them unsuitable for public contracts to demonstrate that they have changed their lives for the better, by proving that they have adopted compliance measures remedying the consequences of their past behavior and preventing future misbehavior.

The second edition of Dentons’ Guide to Self-Cleaning in European Public Procurement Procedures provides an overview of how various EU countries deal with self-cleaning in their respective jurisdictions, with a strong focus on what in practice is required to successfully perform self-cleaning. Covering eleven jurisdictions (Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, United Kingdom), it shows that the application of the European legal framework varies between the Member States. For a full picture of the latest developments, a specific section is focusing on recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

We hope that you will find the Dentons’ Guide to Self-Cleaning in European Public Procurement Procedures useful to understand the developing legal landscape for self-cleaning procedures in the EU, and its accompanying opportunities and challenges.