European Commission simplifies tendering procedures by the adoption of European Single Procurement Document

On the 5 January 2016 the European Commission adopted the European Single Procurement Document or ESPD. The associated Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/7 sets out the standard form of ESPD. This Regulation is directly applicable to all Member States. The Regulation stipulates from the moment national measures implementing the new procurement Directive 2014/24/EU are enforced in each Member State and at the latest by the 18 April 2016, the standard form of ESPD shall be used in line with the new procurement Directive.

The ESPD will allow all businesses to electronically self-declare that they meet the necessary regulatory criteria or commercial capability requirements. Only the successful tenderer will be required to provide documentation showing it complies with the elements for which it has self-declared. Its objective is to reduce the administrative burden arising from the requirement to produce a substantial number of certificates or other documents related to exclusion and selection criteria.

Under Article 59 of the new procurement Directive 2014/24/EU, which is due to be implemented by April of this year, all contracting authorities must accept the ESPD as preliminary evidence that the tenderer:

(a)           is not excluded by virtue of the mandatory or discretionary grounds for exclusion;

(b)           meets the relevant selection criteria; and

(c)            where applicable, it fulfils the objective rules and criteria set out in circumstances where the contracting authority seeks to reduce the number of otherwise qualified candidates to be invited to participate in line with certain permitted tender procedures.

To facilitate its use, a free, web based system is being developed for Member States and businesses. As Member States can postpone the obligation to exclusively use electronic means of communication until 18 October 2018, the ESPD can be printed, filled in manually, scanned and sent electronically until then. As Ireland has been ahead of the curve in the submission of tender documents electronically we would expect an electronic based system for submission of the ESPD to be utilised sooner rather than later in this jurisdiction.

The ESPD will allow for the reuse of data filled in by businesses in previous procurement procedures provided the information remains correct and continues to be relevant.

For more information please contract Joanna Beausang or Deirdre Hennessy.