The Public Contracts Code (CCP), approved by Decree-Law No. 18/2008, of January 29, establishes the discipline applicable to public procurement and the substantive regime of public contracts that take on the nature of an administrative contract. This diploma is an important milestone in Portuguese administrative law and transposes Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. It should be noted that Directive 2014/25/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, of February 26, 2014, on public contracts concluded by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors, repealed Directive 2004/17/EC; And, Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, of February 26, 2014, on public contracts, repealed Directive 2004/18/EC. In turn, Directive 2014/23/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, of February 26, 2014, on the award of concession contracts, was also published.

In the formation and execution of public contracts, the general principles arising from the Constitution, the Treaties of the European Union and the Administrative Procedure Code must be respected, in particular the principles of legality, pursuit of the public interest, impartiality, proportionality, good faith, protection of trust, sustainability and responsibility, as well as the principles of competition, publicity and transparency, equal treatment and non-discrimination.

Contracting entities must ensure, in the formation and execution of public contracts, that economic operators comply with the applicable standards in force in social, labor, environmental, gender equality and prevention and combating corruption matters, arising from international, European, national or regional law, and contracting entities must adopt appropriate measures to prevent, identify and effectively resolve conflicts of interest that arise in the conduct of procedures for the formation of public contracts, in order to avoid any distortion of competition and ensure equal treatment of economic operators, without prejudice to guarantees of impartiality. For this purpose, a conflict of interest is considered any situation in which the manager or worker of a contracting entity or a service provider acting on behalf of the contracting entity, who participates in the preparation and conduct of the procedure for the formation of a public contract or who may influence the results thereof, has directly or indirectly a financial, economic or other personal interest likely to compromise their impartiality and independence in the context of the said procedure.

For the formation of contracts whose object includes benefits that are or may be subject to market competition [considered to be subject to market competition, in general, notably, the typical benefits covered by the object of the following contracts, regardless of their designation or nature: a) Public works contract; b) Public works concession; c) Public services concession; d) Leasing or acquisition of movable goods; e) Acquisition of services; f) Society.], contracting entities must adopt one of the following types of procedures: a) Direct adjustment; b) Prior consultation; c) Public tender; d) Limited competition by prior qualification; e) Negotiation procedure; f) Competitive dialogue; g) Partnership for innovation. The following special procedures are also distinguished: Design competition which, as a rule, takes the form of a public competition, and the form of a limited competition by prior qualification may be adopted when the nature of the design work requires prior evaluation of the competitors’ technical capacity, and the simplified design competition may also be adopted. And the ideas competition to which the provisions regarding the design competition apply.