Call for Papers: Can Public Procurement Law Do It All? Coherence and Trade-offs in a Fragmented Landscape of EU Law, Utrecht University Conference (Utrecht, 17 June 2027)

Utrecht University is organising the conference Can Public Procurement Law Do It All? Coherence and Trade-offs in a Fragmented Landscape of EU Law on 17 June 2027 at the Anatomiegebouw in Utrecht, The Netherlands. It is the closing event of the CIRCLASH project (Governmental Trendsetters: Solving Clashes between Circular and Legal Principles), funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) under the Dutch Research Agenda, and sits within the Utrecht Centre for Public Procurement (UUCePP) and the Centre for Regulation and Enforcement in Europe (RENFORCE).

The conference is convened by Prof. Dr. Willem A. Janssen, Dr. Esra Saide Akdogan, Dr. Kleoniki Pouikli and Dr. Dionysios Pelekis.

A single public tender today may be expected to deliver value for money, open the market to SMEs, cut lifecycle emissions, support circularity, secure supply chains against geopolitical risk and drive innovation, while respecting equal treatment, transparency and proportionality. More than 60 EU Directives and Regulations now shape public procurement, and the European Commission's proposal for a Public Procurement Act adds further principles and objectives. The conference asks whether EU public procurement law can do it all, what conflicts and synergies exist, and what coherent and effective procurement law looks like in the EU. Papers that examine the interaction and trade-offs between objectives, rather than single strategic objectives in isolation, are particularly welcome.

• Conflict and synergies: legal conflicts or trade-offs when procedures must pursue divergent objectives, whether under different instruments or a single one such as the proposed Public Procurement Act; synergies and tensions between environmental, circular, social, innovation, industrial, security and resilience objectives; what really is "strategic".
• Coherence: internal coherence of the procurement directives or the proposed Public Procurement Act; the nexus between environmental, innovation, resilience and economic security objectives; coherence between procurement law and other EU regimes, including State aid and sectoral measures supporting innovation or strategic supply capacity.
• Mechanisms of reconciliation and prioritisation: legal principles or mechanisms for reconciling competing objectives; whether and how certain objectives should be prioritised in EU law.
• Effectiveness: strategic procurement, competition and value for money; mandatory sectoral and horizontal EU legislation and the discretion of public buyers; circular public procurement as a test case; whether the expanding strategic role of procurement strengthens or undermines the effectiveness, accessibility and enforceability of the legal framework.

Researchers, academics and practitioners, from up-and-coming to more established, are invited to submit. PhD candidates and early career researchers are especially welcome. Contributions may be doctrinal, theoretical, comparative, empirical or interdisciplinary. Every contribution must have a strong tie to EU public procurement law, though comparative and international perspectives that illuminate the European debate are also welcome.

• An abstract of a maximum of 300 words setting out the research question, central argument, the expected contribution of the paper and keywords.
• A 100-word bio of the author(s).
• The conference is paper-based: accepted authors submit a full draft paper by 15 May 2027, and drafts are circulated among participants in advance to support substantive discussion.

A selection of contributions will be considered for publication in a special issue of European Papers, subject to the journal's usual editorial and peer-review procedures. The definitive version of papers is due at the end of summer 2027.

Submit the abstract and bio through the official Utrecht University online form by 15 January 2027, 23:59 CET. The form asks for name, email, position, affiliation, a brief bio and the abstract. The call does not mention any submission or registration fee, travel funding or accommodation.