The EU Principles in Public Procurement. Transparency – Origin and Main Characteristics

This chapter reviews the public procurement principles at the EU level with a focus on transparency. It discusses the origins and the various understandings of this principle as well as the lack of any common definition. The principle of transparency is reviewed further as a core principle in the process of awarding procurement contracts. The specific features and functions of transparency are discussed and the evolution of the principle as an anticorruption tool in the procurement process is further analysed. The second part of the chapter presents an example of the national legislation of a Member State (Bulgaria), where the principle of transparency is overexposed and has become a burden on procedures, but its anticorruption effect remains doubtful. This serves as a base for the comparative analysis of the procurement systems and the anticorruption politics of three Members States, different in their approach towards transparency, performed in this book.