eProcurement

Public procurement by electronic means can improve and simplify the way government procurement operates. This will help enterprises to identify contract opportunities and to supply their goods and services across Europe's Internal Market, contributing to Europe's competitiveness and economic growth.

Last update: July 2009

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Objectives
Activities
Achievements
Who will benefit?
The role of IDABC
Technical Information

Objectives

IDABC contributes to:

• achieving interoperability in electronic public procurement;
• facilitating electronic public procurement by providing functional requirements, common tools or generic services for the contracting authorities;
• promoting the use of eProcurement in Europe by creating awareness of transborder eProcurement benefits and opportunities.

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Activities

• Analysis of standards and normalisation needs.
• Testing national solutions for eInvoicing in the European Commission environment.
• Gathering eProcurement professionals and projects around a single virtual table: the eProcurement Forum.
• Study on standardisation and mutual recognition of business attestations frequently required in public procurement.

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Achievements

• The eProcurement Forum, a meeting place for professionals .

• Analysis of eProcurement activities in Europe and abroad to collect experience and select relevant practices.
• Improvement of the common procurement vocabulary codes (CPV, DG Internal Market) in order to take advantage of eTechnologies and integration with eCatalogues.
• Functional requirements for conducting electronic public procurement under the EU framework.
• Data models (XML) for exchanging information and enabling effective communication between buyers and suppliers using eProcurement systems.
• Learning demonstrators on how to implement the new legislation to help software editors and contracting authorities in Europe to develop eProcurement systems.
• eNotices service (Publications Office, OPOCE) to collect public procurement notices for publication in the Supplement of the Official Journal.
• eTendering platform pilot (Publications Office, OPOCE) for demonstrations and learning both for European Institutions and Member States.
• Feasibility study to analyse the generalisation of existing solutions as the German eProcurement platform.
• Study on trans-border barriers and enablers.
• The eProcurement Map: A summary of activities having an impact on the development of European Interoperable eProcurement solutions
• Business Requirements for eInvoicing in a Public Procurement Context 
• Study on the electronic provision of certificates and attestations usually required in public procurement procedures
  
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Who will benefit?

Public Administrations: eProcurement should minimise the time and effort expended by administrations and contracting authorities for organising public procurement competitions.

Businesses: It will also benefit enterprises keen to trade across borders, by giving them improved and easier access to public procurement opportunities across Europe.

Citizens: Making procurement procedures available to a larger audience of suppliers enables the public sector to purchase goods and services at more economically advantageous prices. Citizens will have reassurance that their administrations are spending money in a more cost-effective manner.

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The role of IDABC

Besides providing funds to the relevant activities, the Programme works in close cooperation with other Commission services such as the Internal Market Directorate General, the Publications Office (OPOCE) and the Information Society Directorate General to coordinate the management of these activities.

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Technical Information