State of play, main conclusions, outlook

The aim of the 2015 Commission Implementing Regulation was the reduction of administrative burden. It also aims at improving competition through better access to information by economic operators, and ensuring non-discrimination thanks to higher transparency.

The Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780 of 23 September 2019 established standard forms for the publication of notices in the field of public procurement.

The 2022 Commission Implementing Regulation updates the new standard forms for public procurement foreseen by the Public Procurement Directives and established under the Regulation (EU) 2019/1780. These new standard forms are referred to as eForms. The aim of the update was to improve eForms on several aspects, including reporting requirements under the Clean Vehicles Directive, Green Public Procurement, EU funds, framework agreements and other changes, following evolutions of the public procurement domain and requests of stakeholders and several Member States.

eForms are at the core of the digital transformation of public procurement in the EU. Using a common standard and terminology, eForms will allow to collect procurement data in a more structured way. Structured data collection is key for achieving higher data quality and completeness, which are essential for reliable data analytics. For example, eForms contain dedicated fields to provide information on green, social, and innovative procurement (including compliance with the Clean Vehicles Directive) in a structured way, which is not possible with the current notices.

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 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 RegHub consultation have informed the opinion. The suggestions formulated will feed into the activities and initiatives the Commission has initiated and are followed-up as follows:

(The response below addresses Fit for Future Platform opinion, suggestion 3. The follow-up for suggestions 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 is covered in the REFIT scoreboard fiche on the Standard Procurement Document.)

Suggestion 3: Place an emphasis on the needs of SMEs and small contracting authorities

The use of electronic tools in public procurement can create new business opportunities by improving the access of enterprises, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to public procurement. SMEs and small contracting authorities, face nevertheless challenges as they have fewer resources to devote to the transition to eProcurement. The Commission initiated actions to support these stakeholders to transition to e-procurement. Notably, with the procurement notices eForms, it will be possible to indicate in notices that business opportunities are suitable for SMEs. eForms can be used as of November 2022 and must be used exclusively as of October 2023. The Fit for Future Platform suggestion points out to complex difficulties that SMEs face in accessing the e-procurement, including issues regarding to lack of IT equipment or trained resources. These cannot all be solved with Commission activities, but the procurement notices eForms is an important step towards facilitating the response of suppliers and include all SMEs in the process, while taking into account national specificities as indicated by the Platform.