What does competitive dialogue mean?
The competitive dialogue is a special procedure type intended for contracts where the contracting authority cannot define in advance, with enough precision, the technical, legal or financial means suited to meeting its needs. In such cases, the competitive dialogue allows a structured exchange between the contracting authority and selected applicants to develop one or more suitable solutions together.
The procedure runs in three phases. In the first phase, there is a competitive call for participation in which the applicants' suitability is checked. In the second phase, the dialogue phase, the contracting authority holds talks with the selected participants on all aspects of the contract. The dialogue can take place in several rounds, and the contracting authority can reduce the number of participants step by step. In the third phase, after the dialogue has closed, the remaining participants are invited to submit their final bids based on the solutions worked out in the dialogue.
In practice, the competitive dialogue is used especially for public-private partnerships (PPP), complex IT projects and innovative infrastructure projects. Its advantage is that the expertise of economic operators feeds into finding the solution, while competition and transparency are maintained.
Relevance for bidders
The competitive dialogue gives bidders the opportunity to contribute their expertise and capacity for innovation actively to developing the solution. Unlike in the open or restricted procedure, bidders in the dialogue can present their own ideas and concepts and develop them further in exchange with the contracting authority.
For bidders, however, the competitive dialogue also involves considerable effort. The dialogue phase requires providing qualified staff, working out solution concepts in depth and often several presentation dates. Bidders should therefore weigh carefully whether the chances of success justify the effort. Some contracting authorities offer the dialogue participants compensation for their costs.
Legal framework
Above the EU thresholds, the competitive dialogue is governed by Section 18 VgV (Public Procurement Ordinance). The conditions for using it are in Section 14(3) VgV. EU Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU governs the competitive dialogue in Article 30. The minimum number of dialogue participants is three. During the dialogue phase, the contracting authority must ensure equal treatment of all participants and must not pass on a participant's confidential information to others without that participant's consent.