Lex Specialis as Modus Operandi: Analysing Public Procurement Systems in the Western Balkans

This project is financed with the contribution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Italian Republic. The content of this document represents the views of its authors and in no way represents the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Despite a shared commitment to EU integration, public procurement reform across the Western Balkans remains uneven and complex. At first glance, the region appears to be moving in the right direction – formally aligning legal frameworks, introducing e-procurement systems, and harmonising with EU standards and practice. But beneath the surface lies a troubling workaround that undermines this progress: the recurring use of the lex specialis approach, or special laws, to circumvent established procurement rules. A typical case involves governments launching multi-million-euro infrastructure projects without competitive bidding, justified by a “special national interest” law passed overnight – effectively sidestepping standard procedures and weakening the integrity of the procurement system. This paper argues that the use of special laws not only hinders EU integration by breaching core EU principles of transparency and competition but it also opens the door to unchecked public spending and erodes public trust. To grasp whether this practice is an exception or rather becoming modus operandi across the Western Balkans, the paper explores this grey zone, examining how legal exceptions are increasingly becoming the rule, and what that means for the future of democratic governance and EU accession in the region. Against this regional backdrop, the paper dedicates particular attention to Serbia, where the reliance on special legislation is most entrenched and offers a revealing case of how systemic this practice has become.