Professor of Economic Law Mari Ann Simovart gives her inaugural lecture on dangerous gaps in public procurement law 

On Thursday, 15 May, at 16:15, University of Tartu Professor of Economic Law Mari Ann Simovart gives her inaugural lecture “Three legends of public procurement law and how they serve hostile technology” at the White Hall of the UT Museum. The lecture is in Estonian.

It is known what hostile countries can do with technology in public infrastructure: information gathering, disruptions, AI training, cyber attacks. Public procurements are very vulnerable to such threats. Although excluding third-country bidders from public procurement is common, the situation becomes significantly more complicated when the feared technology is produced in a third country but offered by a European Union (EU) company.

“EU procurement rules clearly allow the contracting authority to prohibit the participation of third-country companies in the procurement conditions – this means that, for example, companies from the People’s Republic of China cannot offer the feared technology in the procurement,” said Simovart. “However, the contracting authority is in a difficult situation if the same technology reaches the procurement through an Estonian or other EU bidder, even if there is reason to suspect that the offered technology may pose a security risk,” explained the professor.

In such legal ambiguity, the contracting authority faces the question of how to exclude a potential threat from the procurement. “Unfortunately, it is easy to find support for the widespread notion that there is no legal basis whatsoever to solve this situation,” said the professor. Myths entrenched in public procurement law also seem to back this view. Simovart, however, is convinced that it is the contracting authority’s right and perhaps even duty to keep dangerous technology out of public procurement.

In her inaugural lecture, the professor asks whether the contracting authorities’ perceived gap in the legal framework of public procurement is real or imagined. Among other topics, she discusses whether the EU procurement directives and the Public Procurement Act transposing them offer opportunities to mitigate risks related to specific products or supply chains and whether the fundamental principles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union justify the discrimination of manufacturers of certain products due to security threats.

Mari Ann Simovart defended her doctoral thesis at the University of Tartu Faculty of Law in 2010. Her research is focused on public procurement law and its relations with private law, especially the impact of EU law in the Estonian legal system. She has participated in several research projects: in 2019–2023, in the European Commission-funded project iProcureNet on the cooperation between procurers in the defence and security sectors, as well as in projects funded by the Estonian Research Council, which dealt with the regulation of procurement contracts (2015–2016) and the meaning of the fundamental principles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union in public procurement (2022–2025).

Simovart has been working at the University of Tartu since 2006. In 2016, she became a member of the standing committee on cases of academic fraud at the University of Tartu School of Law. Since 1 June 2024, Simovart is Professor of Economic Law. She has been a visiting researcher in the UK and the US and published research articles alone and in cooperation with colleagues in Estonia and abroad. Besides research, she has helped to develop teaching at the university and contributed to continuing education activities in Estonia and the EU institutions.

Mari Ann Simovart has been a member of the Procurement Review Board of the European Space Agency since 2020 and its Vice-Chairperson since 2025. She has been included in the international AcademiaNet portal aiming to promote female top-level researchers. Since 2020, Simovart has been the Assistant Editor of the journal Public Procurement Law Review.

The aim of the inaugural lecture is to give the university’s new professor an opportunity to introduce herself, her specialisation and field of research. At the end of the public lecture, the audience will be able to ask questions. Everyone interested is welcome. A live webcast will be available on UTTV.