Brussels, 23/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - European competitiveness minsters examined ways of speeding up online organisation of public procurement at a meeting in Vilnius on Tuesday 23 July (see related article).
The Lithuanian economy minister, Evaldas Gustas, said they had focused on the fact that public procurement must end up being done solely online, be it calls for tender, invoicing or payment. Four-fifths of public procurement is now done online in Lithuania, he explained, adding that public procurement can increase the demand for innovative services.
In the EU28, an average of 19% of public procurement is done online, explained Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier, saying that this had to increase vastly with a view to saving some €80 billion a year if applied across the board.
The commissioner said that the EU institutions had agreed in June on a review of the EU's public procurement directives (of 2004) and the Council of Ministers has now officially endorsed the agreement (see EUROPE 10890). New legislation on public contracts is expected to be endorsed by the European Parliament in October and come into force in 2016. It will slash the eligibility criteria for small business, which at present usually avoids public contracts because the procedure is too complex, expensive and bureaucratic, said Barnier, which is why the Commission has unveiled draft legislation on e-invoicing and e-payments (see EUROPE 10876). (MB/transl.fl)