The European Commission has presented a roadmap to deliver on President Juncker’s political commitment to unleash the full potential of the Single Market and make it the launchpad for Europe to thrive in the global economy. Supporting all the actions, the Commission will work hand in hand with Member States and market participants to create a real culture of compliance for Single Market rules. Particular attention will be paid to the services sector and to public procurement:

7. More transparent, efficient and accountable public procurement

Snapshot: Public procurement is critical to the European economy. EU rules aim to ensure the efficient use of taxpayer money, reduce corruption and modernise public administration. Public expenditure on goods, works, and services represents close to 19% of EU GDP: more than €2.3 trillion are spent annually in the EU. Transparent and competitive public procurement across the Single Market creates business opportunities and contributes to more efficient public administration, economic growth and job creation. EU law sets out minimum harmonised public procurement rules which have to be transposed into national lawby April 2016 (by October 2018 in the case of e-procurement).

Approach: To speed up investment and avoid protracted litigation, the Commission will assist Member States with a voluntary ex ante assessment mechanism of the procurement aspects of certain large-scale infrastructure projects. It will promote networking between first instance review bodies and provide legal and technical assistance for Member States to establish fast and fair remedy bodies. The Commission together with Member States will establish contract registers covering the whole life cycle of contracts. This will improve the transparency and the quality of national procurement systems and support the development of a data analytics and anomaly-detection tool. In a nutshell, we propose a better governance of one fifth of our GDP. This voluntary ex-ante assessment does not prejudge the Commission’s prerogatives under the Treaty. 

Next steps

2017: Voluntary ex ante assessment mechanism of the public procurement aspects of certain large infrastructure projects

2017-2018: Initiatives for better governance of public procurement through establishment of contract registers, improved data collection and a networking of review bodies

So…

• Does the Commission only want to improve national tenders or foster more pan-European awards? Both. Currently, the proportion of public procurement contracts awarded cross border is low. This in effect restricts competition for public contracts which means tax payers are not getting value for money and not getting the best public goods and services.
  

• Won’t the assessment mechanism for infrastructure projects just delay the building of projects that Europe badly needs? No – on the contrary. Presently, too much time is spent in finding out whether a large scale investment project conforms or not to the procurement rules. Under the proposed mechanism, the Commission will deliver its opinion within a timeframe which should not generally exceed three months following the notification of the project. 

– For more information: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5909_en.htm

Un mercado único más justo y más profundo: la Comisión da un impulso a las oportunidades para los ciudadanos y las empresas.

La Comisión Europea ha presentado una hoja de ruta con el objetivo de cumplir el compromiso político del presidente Juncker de liberar todo el potencial del mercado único y convertirlo en la plataforma de lanzamiento para que Europa prospere en la economía mundial.

Como complemento a las medidas previstas, la Comisión trabajará con los Estados miembros y con los participantes en el mercado para crear una auténtica cultura de cumplimiento de las normas del mercado único. En este sentido, se prestará especial atención al sector de los servicios y a la contratación pública. Entre las políticas previstas cabe destacar:

2017: un mecanismo voluntario de evaluación previa de los aspectos de contratación pública de determinados proyectos de grandes infraestructura.

2017-2018: iniciativas para la mejora de la gobernanza de la contratación pública mediante el establecimiento de registros de contratos que cubra todo el ciclo de vida, la recopilación mejorada de datos y creación de una red de los órganos de revisión.

– Ver más información (texto en castellano): http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5909_es.htm