PPT, CR Ipate, EC, Third ENP East public procurement conference, Tbilisi, 6 November 2019

1. SMEs in public procurement -
inside and outside the EU
Raluca Ipate
European Commission
Directorate-General for
Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

2. Why is it important to help SMEs participate in
public procurement?
• The magnitude of the market and the opportunities it offers to
companies.
• It pays off to have SMEs as suppliers.
• The challenges are bigger for SMEs than for large companies.

3. WHAT DO WE DO CONCRETELY?

4. April 2014
Three new Directives adopted by the
European Parliament and the Council
Public
Contracts
2014/24/EU
Utilities
2014/25/EU
Concessions
2014/23/EU

5. Measures to enhance SME's access to public
contracts
NON-DISCRIMINATION
Practice
Policy
development/monitoring
Legislation

6. I. Division of contracts into lots
II. Turnover cap
III. Reduction of
administrative burden
Measures to enhance SMEs’ access to
public contracts

7. I. Division of contracts into lots
Old New
Old rules New rules

8. II. Limitation of the turnover required
to participate in a tender procedure

9. III. Reduction of administrative burden

10. Other SME-friendly provisions
• E-procurement
• E-Certis
• Best Price Quality Ratio (BPQR)
• Green, social and innovation procurement
• Direct payments to subcontractors
• Variants

11. Other actions
• EU level - projects to support:
• SME participation in procurement
• Procurement of innovation
• Professionalisation of public buyers
Cooperation with EEN and other stakeholders
Member States actions

12. Name of the measure Scope
Sector
Year
Initiator Typology Relevance for SMEs
Public Procurement
Academy of the Federal
Procurement Agency
Austria All / BBG (Federal
procurement agency)
Training of public procurement
staff
Measure aimed at
broader target group but
useful for SMEs
Electronic notifications
and e-procurement in
Finland
Finland All 2007 Ministry of Economic
Affairs and
Employment
Encourage the use of e-
procurement
Measure aimed at
broader target group but
useful for SMEs
Integrity Pacts for a
better transparency of
procurement processes
Bulgaria All 2011 Transparency
International and
various Ministries
Improving transparency of
procurement processes
Measure aimed at
broader target group but
useful for SMEs
Helpdesk service for
SMEs
Croatia All 2015 Ministry of the
Economy,
Entrepreneurship and
Crafts
Provision of information/guidance
to SMEs
Measure aimed at
broader target group but
useful for SMEs
The Aarhus Model of
smaller-sized public
procurement
City of
Aarhus,
Denmar
k
All 2014 Municipality
Government
Encourage the division of
contracts into lots
Reduced economic and financial
requirements
Measure aimed at SMEs
only
Financial support for
innovative public
procurement
Estonia All 2016 The Ministry of
Economic Affairs and
Enterprise Estonia
Financial support to SMEs
Training of public procurement
staff
Measure aimed at
broader target group but
useful for SMEs
Collaborative reverse
factoring to facilitate the
prompt payment of public
contracts
France All 2015 UGAP (Central
purchasing body)
Simplified processes and
documentation requirements
Timely and efficient payment
terms/arrangement for SMEs (or
Measure aimed at
broader target group but
useful for SMEs

13. IS IT WORKING?

14. Progress in SMEs’ participation
in public procurement
• A positive trend can be identified for above-threshold procurement:
• From 55% in 2010 to 61% in 2017 in terms of number of contracts
• From 29% for the 2009-2011 period to 33% in terms of value for 2011-2017
• The estimated direct and indirect participation increased from 45% to 49% in
terms of value.

15. Trends by type of contract
By number of awards By aggregate contract value (<100m)
N = 53,535 N = 37,905

16. SME policy outside the EU
• SME Work Programme in the Government Procurement Agreement, WTO
• Negotiations of FTAs
• Engagement with other international organisations

17. SME Working Programme in the Government
Procurement Agreement, WTO
DECISION OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT ON A WORK
PROGRAMME ON SMEs
Recognises the importance of facilitating the participation of SMEs in government
procurement; and
Recognises that Parties have agreed to seek to avoid introducing or continuing
discriminatory measures that distort open procurement.
The parties are currently working on a list of non-discriminatory practices for promoting
and facilitating the participation of SMEs in government procurement.

18. Categories of measures in the a list of non-
discriminatory practices
 Enhanced transparency
 Reduction of administrative burden
 Procurement opportunities for the SMEs, including through
proportional qualification and selection criteria
 Enhancing the professionalisation of procuring entities as well as
the cooperation and dialogue between them and SMEs

19. DCFTAs and FTAs
• DCFTAs
• Legislation in line with the directives:
Article 46 Division of contracts into lots
Article 58 Selection criteria
Article 59 European Single Procurement Document:
paragraph 1 mutatis mutandis, paragraph 4
Phase 2
Approximation and
implementation of
basic elements of
Directive 2014/24/EU
and of Directive
89/665/EEC

20. FTAs – public procurement chapter
• GPA+ provisions
Article IV of the GPA, Paragraph 6
Offsets
6. With regard to covered procurement, a Party, including its
procuring entities, shall not seek, take account of, impose or
enforce any offsets.