ePractice Workshop: eProcurement in the time of economic crisis - 25/5/2011

1. Putting the “e” in public procurement: state of play, challenges and ways forward ePractice Workshop: eProcurement in the time of economic crisis - 25/5/2011 DG Internal Market and Services, European Commission ec.europa.eu/internal_market/publicprocurement

2. Changing procurement drives e-proc • More centralisation, collaborative purchasing and aggregation (17% of purchasing done on behalf of another authority); • CPBs and specialised agencies will be the hubs of European e-procurement infrastructure; • But ….. austerity and budget cuts reduce resources for building e-proc capacity – need to show short-term pay-back.

3. e-proc becomes more commonplace Some MS are fully converted or on way to full conversion (PORT, CYP, LITH); Others make rapid strides (AUS, SW, IT). 230 platforms and portals across EU; Host many purchasers and suppliers; Increasingly sophisticated range of services/possibilities; considerable variation in operating models and systems Eurostat: 2011 BUT: Limited cross-border participation; 5% of registered suppliers from other Member States

4. EU policy objectives • Support transition to e-procurement: • Ensure e-procurement systems are open to suppliers

5. Support transition to e-procurement (1) • Possible solutions: • Demonstrate success, best and worst practice • Clarify legal environment to remove uncertainty and optimise e-proc solutions; • Provide off the shelf/plug-in solutions (e-PRIOR); • Support investment and training; • Impose use of e-procurement (for some purchases, purchasers, processes) • Barriers to be overcome: • Inertia and fear • Onerous technical requirements • Technical complexity & legal uncertainties • Lack of resources + unproven business case • Security concerns; • SME supplier capacity to ‘tool up’.

6. Mandatory e-procurement:Responses to Green Paper • 53% of respondents favour making e-Procurement mandatory at EU level. • 50% of public authorities against.

7. Open EU e-procurement marketplace (1) • Suppliers can identify and respond to public procurement opportunities across the EU. • Barriers and causes of fragmentation: • Lack of standards • No mutual recognition of national solutions for e-signatures • Access barriers between first-movers & slow-starters • Language barriers • Differences across Member States • 85% of respondents favour EU action to reduce cross-border barriers. • 4 main actions proposed (by order of frequency): • Ensure mutual recognition of authentication/identification solutions • Enhance interoperability through standardisation of key requirements; • Clarify core requirements and principles for e-procurement systems; • Standardise certificates and requirements

8. Authentication/identification solutions • 6 options identified reflecting current approaches. • Preferred solution = login + password and e-signatures.

9. What next: 1) Options for improving legislation • 76% of GP respondents favour changes to EU law. Almost all ask for changes on e-Signatures and DPS. • Provide visibility and access to documents (>threshold); • facilitate use of e-proc solutions (catalogues, DPS); • solve current e-signature deadlock; • Allow reference to standardised/proven solutions; • Define role & responsibilities of CPBs/e-proc platforms; • Minimise and codify evidence problems; Proposal for legislative revision = end-2011:

10. What next: 2) Options for non-legislative action • Build common view on desired functional design, business processes & supplier interfaces (expert group); • promote demonstrated solutions (incl PEPPOL); • Make COM-built solutions available (e-PRIOR); • Use standardisation to frame stable specs • Develop reference KPIs +benchmarking. Road-map to capitalise on new legislative opportunities – early 2012