E-procurement to account for most public procurement within 5-10 years: Brussels

The European Commission has announced plans to boost the take-up of e-procurement, which it claimed would account for most public procurement administration within five to ten years.

Publishing the 77 responses to its Green Paper, Brussels said there was “broad support for EU level action, including the use of legislation, to facilitate the use of standardised e-procurement solutions”.

It added: “A small majority of respondents support the imposition of EU level requirements to use e-procurement.”

The Commission has now called for applications to take part in a new, informal expert group on e-tendering. The group is expected to develop a blueprint for common solutions for electronic submission of offers by the end of 2012.

Brussels has also issued an OJEU notice for a project to monitor the use of e-procurement across the EU and review best practice. It said the current lack of information on e-procurement development was hampering take-up.

The EC said it wanted its measures to accelerate the switchover to e-procurement and to enable suppliers to take part in online procurement procedures across the single market.

Commissioner Michel Barnier, who is responsible for Internal Market and Services, claimed that e-procurement was the future of public procurement.

He said: “It delivers better procurement outcomes, reduces waste and error, and helps public purchasers to manage complex transactions. In 5-10 years time, most public procurement administration will be electronic. We have to start preparing for that change now. At EU level, we have to ensure that the legal and policy environment supports the switchover.”

Brussels also highlighted recent Deutsche Bank research claiming that full conversion to e-procurement could save between €50 and €70bn per year.