The University of Zagreb Faculty of Law and the Croatian Employers’ Association are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the international conference “Geopolitics and Public Procurement”, to be held on 1 July 2026 at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb (Trg Republike Hrvatske 3, Lecture Room III).

Attendance is free. Register at gppp.pravo.hr.

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Why this conference, and why now?

The external dimension of EU public procurement has undergone a quiet but profound transformation. For decades, the question of how the EU should treat economic operators from third countries was a specialist concern, confined to the footnotes of trade law and the margins of procurement policy. That is no longer the case.

The International Procurement Instrument (IPI) gives the EU a mechanism to restrict third-country access to procurement markets in response to discriminatory practices abroad. The Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) extends scrutiny to foreign-subsidised bidders in large public tenders. And the recently proposed Draft Industrial Accelerator Act signals that the EU is increasingly willing to use procurement as a lever of industrial and geostrategic policy. The CJEU has meanwhile clarified — in Kolin (C-652/22) and Qingdao (C-266/22) — that third-country access to EU procurement falls within the EU’s exclusive competence over the common commercial policy.

The legal and policy implications of all this remain deeply contested. Should the EU introduce “Buy European” criteria? Are domestic content requirements compatible with the Treaties? How do the IPI, FSR and Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) interact in practice? And how do Croatian businesses and public buyers navigate this shifting landscape?

These are the questions the conference will address — combining rigorous legal analysis with practical perspectives from the procurement community.

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Speakers

The conference brings together leading international and Croatian experts:

• Roberto Caranta (University of Turin) — one of Europe’s foremost authorities on public procurement law, sustainable procurement, and remedies
• Sarah Schoenmaekers (Maastricht University / Open Universiteit / Hasselt University) — specialist in European economic law, procurement, and free movement
• Annamaria La Chimia (University of Nottingham) — Professor of Law and Development, Director of the Public Procurement Research Group, and adviser to the World Bank, European Commission, and OECD/SIGMA
• Pedro Telles (Copenhagen Business School) — procurement regulation scholar with a focus on data, transparency, and market integration
• Hrvoje Stojić — Chief Economist at the Croatian Employers’ Association, with over two decades of experience in financial and competitiveness analysis
• Maja Kuhar — President of the State Commission for the Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures of the Republic of Croatia

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Who should attend?

The conference is designed for procurement practitioners, contracting authorities, lawyers, economists, business representatives, academics, and anyone with a professional or intellectual stake in where EU procurement law is heading. Croatia’s integration into the EU single market means these questions are not abstract — they affect how Croatian public buyers structure their procedures and how Croatian companies compete.

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Practical details

Date: 1 July 2026

Venue: Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb — Trg Republike Hrvatske 3, Lecture Room III

Attendance: Free, with prior registration required

Register and view the full programme: gppp.pravo.hr

We look forward to welcoming you to Zagreb.

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