As associações de empregadores e a contratação pública : contributo para a densificação do conceito de organismo de Direito Público no Direito Administrativo português

This articles deals with the densification, under Portuguese law, of the European law concept of bodies of public law vis-à-vis public procurement procedures. In effect, the circumstance that employers’ associations are the beneficiaries of financing from the State and other public institutes may give raise to the classification of such entities as bodies of public law, however strange such qualification would be under Portuguese legal terminology. The article concludes that financing is in fact the determining factor in formulating such qualification, as employers’ associations are, in principle, not subject to a controlling influence from public authorities.