Elisabetta Manunza on BNR Nieuwsradio about billion euro order for Dutch company Damen

On Monday 20 January BNR Nieuwsradio spoke to prof. dr. Elisabetta Manunza, professor of International and European Public Procurement Law at Utrecht University and co-founder and co-director of the Public Procurement Research Centre, about the billion euro order for the Dutch company Damen from the German Ministry of Defence for the production of four frigates. The German shipbuilder German Naval Yards challenges the award before a German court and demands the annulment of the awarding.

According to Manunza, it is a remarkable order because Germany has never before awarded such a large contract in the military sector to a foreign company. EU Member States such as Germany usually award such contracts to domestic companies exclusively. According to Manunza, this is understandable: “the market for military goods is a distinctive market, where national security considerations play a major role.” Manunza stresses that the absence of political integration in the military domain and the current geopolitical shifts make these types of contracts not just of economic concern, instead “these issues have a major political dimension."

Listen to the interview on the website of BNR. (In Dutch).