State of play, main conclusions, outlook

Implementing the new legislative framework on public procurement, the Commission introduced the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) as a standardised self-declaration to facilitate participation in procurement procedures.

The Commission will continue its effort to improve the ESPD implementation, considering also the recommendation of the REFIT Platform in its opinion on the ESPD. A satisfaction assessment of the ESPD took place in 2019, which was based on a few years of application and provides a more comprehensive picture of the situation.

Estimated savings and benefits

With the implementation of the ESPD service, Finland used the chance to connect this service to national databases to allow direct access. Based on analysis from the Ministry of Finance in Finland, the elimination of the need to provide evidences in procurement procedures was envisaged to save EUR 6.8 millions yearly from suppliers, alone.

The savings on the buyer side were estimated to be even more significant. The time saving in the bid evaluation stage was estimated to be worth over EUR 10 millions yearly. With no need to request and check the evidences, public buyers would save time during the evaluation process and as well in contract signing stage. According to Denmark, the benefits accrue to EUR 12 millions per year, while Croatia reported 83% reduction of cost in preparing bids with regard to means of proof. No Member State has tried yet to quantify the benefits deriving from a reduced administrative burden for buyers.

REFIT Platform

In its opinions 2 opinions on the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) (Ref. XII.19.a and XII.19.b), the REFIT Platform recommended a series of practical suggestions aiming at facilitating access and practical use of the electronic ESPD service. The input was already partly implemented by the Commission in its continuous effort to improve the implementation of the ESPD.

Fit for Future Platform

The Fit for Future Platform adopted its opinion: Public procurement legislation (e-procurement) on 10 December, during its plenary meeting. The opinion includes six suggestions (here five are referred to) to simplify, modernise and reduce potential burdens in the area of e-procurement for the benefit of businesses, in particular SMEs as well as contracting authorities and citizens. Contributions from the members of the Platform and a RegHub consultation have informed the opinion. The suggestions formulated feed into the activities and initiatives the Commission has initiated and are followed-up as follows:

Suggestion 1: Simplification of the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD)

Suggestion 2: Ensure the interoperability of platforms and their compatibility with various national databases – digitising the whole procurement procedure

Suggestion 4: Addressing missing links with respect to eSignature

Suggestion 5: More targeted efforts to enhance technical capacity to support the transition to eProcurement

Suggestion 6: Improve the user-friendliness of eCertis

(The responses below address the Fit for Future Platform opinion, suggestions 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. The follow-up for suggestion 3 is covered in the REFIT Scoreboard entry on Standard forms for public procurement.)

In its opinion, the Platform points out to the difficulties that both contracting authorities and economic operators face with the ESPD, which require further simplification of the document, potentially leading to reducing administrative burden and to a decreased risk of errors. The Platform provides several possible solutions to achieve such simplification.

Building on these solutions, the Commission remains attentive to the benefits of the ESPD that can be achieved when it is integrated with the existing eProcurement landscape in the countries and will organise further activities to achieve this. This is necessary to reach the once only principle (OOP) in the area of public procurement and to support SMEs efficiently.

As one of the most notable solutions, the Platform recommends that the questions of the ESPD are simplified. This was discussed and supported by the Commission in the initial consultation of the ESPD Implementing Regulation, taking into account that when simplifying the questions however, the meaning of the question must stay the same.

Further, the Platform underlines that companies must be responsible for the communication of correct information but they can be helped to understand procurement systems. The Commission recognises the importance of this aspect and supports a technical data model of the ESPD, which allows the buyers to provide information of the individual criteria. This helps on the side of the SME to better understand the requirements and to avoid misunderstandings. The data model is maintained by the Publications Office, which has regular meetings with stakeholders around Europe to improve the model. These improvements also aim to promote a higher integration of the ESPD with other systems and the new eForms, including eCertis, which is in line with the opinion of the Platform

Furthermore, through expert group meetings or national workshops steered by the Commission, Member States are being systematically updated on the development and use of the ESPD. Building on the Platform’s suggestion to take into account the national specificities, the Commission will follow up by further organising national workshops, which allow to discuss the situation in the national context.

Based on the Platform’s solutions proposed in this suggestion, the Commission continues to work towards the further simplification of the ESPD overall. Nevertheless, the Commission points out that as the ESPD is tailored for each public procurement procedure, it is not desirable nor useful to link it to the buyer profile.

Building on this Platform’s suggestion, the Commission plans to standardise requests in the field of digital procurement in 2023. This is also in line with the 2013 Commission recommendation regarding the digitisation of the end-to-end life cycle.

Besides this, the national workshops will be used here as well to discuss the national situation.

The Commission points out that with the Public Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU the use of eSignature for bids was not mandatory anymore. This was introduced for simplification purposes. It is now the choice of the Member State to require this. Member States who moved away from eSignature have not reported back issues when submitting the bids electronically, and therefore no further follow-up of this suggestion is planned for now.

Enhancing technical capacity as recommended by the Platform represents a key element to support the use of e-procurement. As the setting in all Member States is very different, the Commission plans to use the future national workshops to highlight this to the Member State to take the appropriate steps. Furthermore, the Commission will integrate a new section in the eProcurement matrix to gather information regarding the training initiatives that are taking place in each country.

The Commission initiated several updates of eCertis, which the Platform points out as necessary, to improve the system, including its user-friendliness. As recommended by the Platform, the Commission plans further updates of this solution, including linking it better to the ESPD and eForms. The Commission also will steer further exchanges with the Member States, which have the responsibility to update their data sets, to improve the data quality. This will reduce administrative burden both for public authorities and economic operators and facilitate cross-border procurement.