Nicolas Cariat

Nicolas has significant experience regarding the award and performance of public tenders as well as concessions and PPPs in the public sector, the utilities sector and the defence sector, at both national and EU levels. He also has relevant expertise in other aspects of economic public law, such as subsidies (at national and EU levels), the operations of state-owned companies and other public contracts.

He advises public authorities and state-owned corporations on a broad range of issues related to their organisation and the conduct of their policies, including the reorganisation of public bodies, the drafting of legislative and regulatory texts, budgetary rules and the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010). In relation to these issues, Nicolas provides hands-on and strategic legal advice as well as transactional support to public authorities, state-owned corporations and corporates. He also represents them before civil courts, the Council of State, the Markets Court, the Constitutional Court and the Court of justice of the European Union.

Nicolas holds a master’s degree in public law from the Université catholique de Louvain (2009). He also obtained a doctoral degree in European Union law from that same university (2015), on the basis of which he has developed a special expertise in the interactions between EU law and national public law, including regulation of market activities, constraints imposed by EU law on legal orders and policies of the Member States, and the application of EU law by Belgian courts and administrative bodies.

Nicolas was a teaching assistant and researcher at the Université catholique de Louvain for five years. Over the past years, Nicolas has taught different EU law and economic public law courses as a guest lecturer at the Université catholique de Louvain, the Université de Namur and the Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles. He also authored numerous publications and often speaks at conferences on the aforementioned subject matters. In June 2024, Nicolas was awarded the title of specialist in administrative law and public procurement law by the French Bar Association of Brussels.

Nicolas joined the Brussels office of Stibbe in 2014.