Background

The purpose of the EU procurement rules is to open up the public procurement market and to ensure the free movement of goods and services within the EU.  In most cases they require competition. The EU rules reflect and reinforce the value for money (vfm) focus of the government's procurement policy.  This requires that all public procurement must be based on vfm (defined as the optimum combination of whole-life cost and quality to meet the user's requirement) which should be achieved through competition, unless there are compelling reasons to the contrary.