Annexes to COM(2012)179 - Strategy for e-procurement - Main contents

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dossier	COM(2012)179 - Strategy for e-procurement.
document	COM(2012)179
date	April 20, 2012

Agreement) contains very limited provisions concerning e-procurement and merely foresees that parties shall consult regularly on developments in this area. The recently agreed GPA text represents a step-change as it recognises the importance of using and encouraging the use of electronic means for procurement, while contracts awarded by electronic means are now explicitly within the scope of the Agreement. General principles are established governing the use of electronic means while specific rules apply inter alia to the electronic publication of notices and the use of electronic auctions. Beyond these legal provisions, informal consultations among jurisdictions on the use of e-procurement systems will become essential to avoid new obstacles to cross-border contracts. Common reliance on high-quality international standards should pave the way to achieve the necessary degree of openness and inter-operability.

In light of the increasingly important international dimension of e-procurement, openness of e-procurement systems to bidders from all jurisdictions, especially among WTO GPA members, must be ensured. The European Commission will therefore seek to step-up its participation in relevant international standardisation fora and to more systematically include e-procurement in bilateral regulatory dialogues with its main trading partners.

Key actions:

(15) European Commission to promote international regulatory dialogues about open e-procurement systems and to actively monitor relevant international standardisation work.

6. Conclusion

The transition towards full e-procurement is not primarily a technical nor technological challenge. It is above all an economic and political challenge, which cannot be overcome without strong commitment at the highest political level. The Commission therefore invites Member States and the European Parliament to give a clear political signal of their determination to face-up to this challenge, in particular by adopting the revised Public Procurement legislative package before the end of this year so that the transition to full e-procurement is achieved successfully in the EU by mid-2016.

[1]               The use of electronic communications and transaction processing by public sector organisations when buying supplies and services or tendering public works

[2]               COM(2010)245

[3]               COM(2010) 743 of 15 December 2010

[4]               According to the Manchester Ministerial Declaration of 24 November 2005 “all public administrations across Europe will have the capability of carrying out 100% of their procurement electronically” and “at least 50% of public procurement above the EU public procurement threshold will be carried out electronically” by 2010: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/docs/pdf/manchester_declaration.pdf.

[5]               See: http://www.pps.go.kr/english/ for further information

[6]               Proposals of 20 December 2011: COM(2011)895 final; COM(2011)896 final and COM(2011)897 final

[7]               The Single Market Act identifies a series of measures to boost the European economy and create jobs

[8]               The proposals foresee mandatory use of e-procurement at the latest two years after the transposition deadline, which under the current timetable for adoption should allow implementation by mid-2016

[9]               The procurement processes covers two main phases: the pre-award phase and the post award phase. Pre-award comprises all the sub-phases of procurement until the award of the contract (publication of notices, access to tender documents, submission of bids, evaluation of the proposals and the award of the contract). Post-award comprises all the sub-phases of procurement after the award of the contract (ordering, invoicing and payment)

[10]             See European Commission's report on Public Procurement Indicators 2010: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/publicprocurement/docs/indicators2010_en.pdf

[11]             Contracting authorities and entities that made the transition to e-procurement commonly report savings between 5 to 20% mainly driven by price reductions

[12]             See Lukas Vogel, Macroeconomic effects of cost savings in public procurement, Economic Papers 389, November 2009 (DG for Economic and Financial Affairs, European Commission): http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/publication16259_en.pdf.

[13]             See E-procurement - Public procurement worth two trillion euros needs smarter spending, Deutsche Bank Research (February 2011). See: http://www.dbresearch.de/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_DE-PROD/PROD0000000000269867.PDF.

[14]             These examples were obtained by the European Commission through direct contact with various public authorities and stakeholders

[15]             Summary of the responses to the Green Paper on expanding the use of e-procurement in the EU.: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/docs/2010/e-procurement/synthesis_en.pdf.

[16]             See the Action Plan and related documents, including its 2010 evaluation at: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/publicprocurement/e-procurement/documents/index_en.htm.

[17]             Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on public procurement (COM(2011) 896 final)

[18]             TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the online version of the 'Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union', dedicated to European public procurement.

[19]             More information about e-CERTIS is available on the Europa website at: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/publicprocurement/e-procurement/e-certis/index_en.htm.

[20]             Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sector (COM(2011) 895 final)

[21]             Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the award of concessions contracts (COM(2011) 897 final)

[22]             Digital Agenda Europe Action "Guidance on link between ICT standardisation and public procurement".

[23]             http://www.peppol.eu/.

[24]             See http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/ict_psp/projects/index_en.htm.

[25]             The CEF was proposed in 2011 as the common financing instrument for trans-European networks. See Communication from the Commission on “A growth package for integrated European infrastructures”, COM(2011)676. See also Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Connecting Europe Facility COM(2011)665

[26]             COM(2010)245 of 19 May 2010.

[27]             COM(2010)743 of 15 December 2010.

[28]             https://etendering.ted.europa.eu/

[29]             e-PRIOR is a solution developed within the European Commission. It was made available to external users as an open source solution (“Open e-PRIOR”). See https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/software/openeprior/description.

[30]             http://ec.europa.eu/isa/