The main objective of Portugal’s Decree Law 18/2008 of 29 January 2008 (Public Contracts Code – PCC) was to transpose Directives 2004/17 and 2004/18 of the European Parliament and Council dated 31 March 2004 to the Portuguese legal framework. However, it went much further than that and represents a profound modification to the Portuguese Public Procurement Law (PPL).

Public procurement in Portugal is currently governed by three important laws, although this is about to be modified.