The European Commission presented on Thursday a proposal to simplify public procurement rules, give public entities more room for negotiation and reinforce preference for European companies and products. The initiative intends to replace the current set of scattered rules with a single directly applicable European regulation, reducing complexity and standardising the application of rules across the different Member States. Public procurement currently represents around 15% of the European Union's GDP, and Brussels expects the reform to allow annual administrative savings of around 650 million euros.
The proposal opens the door to a preference for European companies and products in public contracts, creating a common framework that allows limiting access to operators from third countries when these do not guarantee equivalent conditions to EU companies or when strategic dependencies are at stake. The measure intends to use the purchasing power of Member States to strengthen European industry and protect critical sectors, while still respecting international public procurement rules.
One of the main changes is the creation of a European digital public procurement market, based on the connection between electronic platforms of the different Member States. The principle will be that of "a single declaration", allowing data already submitted by companies to be reused and verified by public administrations, facilitating cross-border participation and increasing competition.
The Commission also wants the criterion of the best price-quality ratio to become the rule, with quality-related criteria representing at least 30% of the evaluation, or at least 50% in contracts with high labour intensity. In the evaluation of proposals, factors such as environmental impact, social conditions, innovation, security and supply chain resilience may also be taken into account, in addition to price. The reform comes after warnings from the European Court of Auditors about the decline in competition and the reduced participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in public tenders. The proposal will now need to be negotiated by the European Parliament and the EU Council before it can be approved and enter into force.
