National security and critical infrastructure

In recent times, there has been an increased focus on protecting security interests in public procurement. Dramatic geopolitical developments at the Eastern border of the European Union, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, have resulted in increased awareness of risks of espionage and geopolitical dependencies which may restrict the supply of critical goods and services, such as the procurement of military equipment.

There seems to be a conviction in the Netherlands that the government should be less naive in using technology from countries with conflicting geopolitical interests in the Dutch critical infrastructure. In 2018, the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) warned that sensitive public tenders create security risks, such as disturbances in the critical infrastructure, espionage, leakage of state secrets and geopolitically undesirable dependencies. These risks were emphasized in the last coalition agreement, which stated that the Netherlands should become more independent with regards to ‘strategic goods and services.’ At the EU level, there have also been initiatives to become more independent from countries who do not share our beliefs about an open society; thereby strengthening the EU’s own ‘strategic autonomy’ for instance by screening foreign investments. This tendency is rapidly expanding since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

To allow security organizations to mitigate national security risks better, the EU legislature has issued the Directive on public procurement concerning defense and security contracts (Directive 2009/81/EC). In 2013 this Directive has been implemented by the Dutch legislator in the Aanbestedingswet op Defensie en Veiligheidsgebied (Procurement Act on defense and security). In practice however, security risks often also arise in the activities of governments and utilities that are not necessarily within the scope of the special legislation.

UUCePP conducts legal and multidisciplinary research, aimed at effectively incorporating security risks into military procurement specifically as well as procurement of security organizations, governments, and essential facilities in general.

Sub-themes and specific projects

• Military Procurement and national security
  • Sovereignty and Interdependence in EU Military Procurement Regulation
  • The boundaries of the internal market: inter-European procurement of defence equipment in a national security context
• Public Procurement by the National Police
• Screening of Tenderers to Protect National Security

Education

• Capita Selecta course within the LLM programs European Law and Law & Economics, Military Procurement Regulation: Towards EU Strategic Autonomy?, since February 2022.
• Aanbestedingsrecht en Nationale Veiligheid (Public Procurement Law and National Security) as a part of Utrecht University’s executive course: Aanbestedingsrecht voor de inkooppraktijk, since November 2020.