Under the European Union public procurement directives, all public sector bodies must abide by certain rules when they procure goods and services over a threshold value. These rules are codified under 5 procurement procedures:
1. Open Procedure
2. Restricted Procedure
3. Competitive Dialogue
4. Competitive Procedure with Negotiation
5. Innovation Partnerships.
Under normal circumstances, there is no commercial negotiation allowed under the two most commonly used procedure, Open and Restricted. Under these procedures, the prices and terms and conditions of contract should be decided via reference only to the tenderers' responses to the buyer's requests for tenders, and not through 'post-tender negotiation'. Under the other procedure, negotiation within the rules is permitted.
Interested learners can read more about these procedures here.
LO 1, AC 1.1