Brussels, 05/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 5 January, the European Commission adopted the new online European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) which will considerably reduce the administrative burden for companies, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which want to have a fair chance at winning a public contract.
The ESPD will allow all businesses to electronically self-declare that they meet the necessary regulatory criteria or commercial capability requirements, and only the winning company will need to submit all the documentation proving that it qualifies for the contract.
This system will speed up procedures and increase the number of companies taking part in public award procedures as, previously, all interested parties had to provide full documentation from the start of the award procedure, thereby considerably slowing the process and discouraging many SMEs from tendering.
A free, web-based system is currently being developed for member states and businesses. Member states may, however, elect to use a transitional system until 18 October 2017. Until that date, the ESPD may be printed, filled in manually, scanned and sent electronically, the Commission says.
This measure is one of the major elements of the new directive on public procurement and concessions contracts which will come into force on 18 April 2016 and which seeks to significantly improve access to public procurement. Under this directive, public contracts may be divided into a number of lots and the minimum financial criteria will be eased, with the minimum turnover required to take part in a public tender capped at double the value of the contract. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)