International Public Procurement Instrument

Protectionism in public procurement is on the rise worldwide. Over the last decade, studies have shown that the number of public procurement barriers has increased by a factor of five. These barriers to public procurement can take many forms. They can be legal provisions that de jure restrict the market access for foreign bidders, or they can be practices that de facto reduce the chances of success for foreign bidders in public procurement procedures.

Commonly observed restrictive regulations or measures adopted in third country include:

• local content requirements;
• price preference schemes favouring domestic bidders in public procurement procedures;
• legal restrictions or prohibitions on the participation of foreign bidders in public procurement procedures.

For more information on public procurement barriers, the OECD has developed a taxonomy of public procurement measures restricting access to the EU procurement market.

Have you encountered a barrier in a third country?

You can launch an International Public Procurement Instrument (IPI) complaint directly with the Single Entry Point using the IPI complaint form.

You are welcome to contact us directly on trade-eu-international-procurement-instrument@ec.europa.eu if you have any questions or need support when launching the complaint.

We will assess your IPI complaint together with our experts. Once completed, we will inform you of the outcome of the assessment.

Are you an interested party wishing to submit information for an IPI investigation?

See guidance on submission of information by interested parties.

Declaration on copyright

When you submit information to the European Commission, you need to specify the declaration on copyright, please review the declaration on copyright guidelines.