On April 5, 2021, new regulations were adopted in the field of public procurement[1], limiting the access of certain economic operators from outside the European Union area to public procurement procedures, sectoral procurement procedures and works/services concession procedures carried out under Romanian law.

Thus, under the new regulations, in order to participate in any of the aforementioned procedures, a person must be established:

► either in a Member State of the European Union or of the European Economic Area or in a third country which is in the process of accession to the European Union;

► either in a third country that has ratified the Agreement on Government Procurement of the World Trade Organisation (only to the extent that the agreement is covered by certain provisions of the European Union’s Appendix I to this Agreement) or in a third country which is a signatory to other international agreements by which the European Union is compelled to grant free access to the public procurement market.

Not falling into one of these categories triggers the exclusion of the person from any public procurement procedure, sectoral procurement procedure or works/services concession procedure, irrespective of whether the person has the status of an individual bidder, joint bidder, candidate, supporting third party or subcontractor.

The list of third countries covered by the new regulations will be approved within 30 days as of the entry into force of the regulations and will be updated annually or whenever a change occurs, within 30 days as of the occurrence of the amending situation.

The new regulations do not apply to award procedures in which bids were submitted on April 5, 2021 (date of entry into force of the new regulations).

[1] Government Emergency Ordinance No. 25/2021 on amending and supplementing the legislation in the field of public procurement, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, No. 346/05.04.2021.