The Most Economically Advantageous Tender in the Public Procurement System in the European Union

The aim of the chapter is to list the features of the most economically advantageous tender and to stress its significance in the public procurement procedure. The chapter concerns selection of most economically advantageous offer in the area of public procurement law of the European Union. The awarding entity may find the tender the most economically advantageous if they point out the best quality/price ratio, taking into account quality, ecological or social aspects of a given object of the contract. The price or the cost of the contract should also be taken into consideration in the evaluation. Thus the price-related criterion is essential whereas the quality of offered goods and services is of the greatest significance so that the most economic tender was the most economically advantageous from the point of view of the awarding entity. Defining the most economic tender, the authors of the chapter point out at general methods of selecting it on the basis of objective reasons economic calculation and other methods of calculating it. Moreover, they present legal regulations in selected Member States as regards criteria of selecting the most economically advantageous tenders in the public procurement procedure implementing EU directives. Formal and dogmatic method and the ratio analysis have been used. The case study has also been presented.