Public procurement: new EU rules applicable from today

As of today, Member States and their public authorities must comply with the three Directives on public procurement and concessions adopted in 2014. Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Commissioner for Internal market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs said: “Public procurement rules are there to ensure that taxpayers’ money that goes into the public purchase of goods, works and services is well spent. The new rules will further simplify public tender procedures and render them more flexible to the benefit of SMEs in particular. They also encourage the shift towards an energy and resource efficient economy alongside the well-established objective of achieving the best quality-price ratio.”  Authorities that have already made the transition to eProcurement report savings between 5% and 20%. Given the size of the total procurement market in the EU (€ 1.9 trillion per year), each 5% saved could return around €100 billion to the public purse. More details on DG Growth’s website