Abstract

The article highlights key shortcomings of the current regulation of public contracts below EU thresholds, as indicated in the opinions of the doctrine and practice. One of the first proposals to improve this regulation was to eliminate the concept of the basic mode as an umbrella term for the two existing contract award procedures - unlimited tender and negotiated procedure with publication. This would allow for a more focused regulation of the differences between these procedures in low-value contracts, compared to their established framework in EU contracts. Further proposals for reform included: modifying the scope of negotiations in the current variant II of the basic procedure (including enabling limits on the advantageousness of certain offer proposals on the assumption that the overall evaluation of the additional offer would be more advantageous than the original offer); introducing contractor pre-selection mechanisms in sub-threshold contracts; allowing negotiations in the current variant II of the basic mode, not only after the evaluation of the original bids, but also at later stages of the procedure. In the analysis of further proposed normative solutions to improve the regulation of sub-threshold contracts, the issue of introducing the possibility of conducting negotiations also in variant III of the current basic mode (after the evaluation of the final offers) was also raised. The proposed changes to the scope of negotiations in the current basic procedure were assessed from the perspective of compliance with the principles of equal treatment and protection of competition, as well as avoiding normative solutions to the contract award procedures that would give the contracting authority excessive freedom in shaping the rules of an ongoing procedure.