Public e-procurement tools in European Union

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to describe public procurement electronic solutions promoted by the European Union and to analyse the usage of these tools in different member countries. The economic importance of the purchase of works, goods and services made by public authorities is outstanding mainly because of their very high value. The EU directives tend to ensure the transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the procurement market and show electronic tools as a very useful and innovative solution. They can be implemented in pre-award and post-award phases of the procurement process with the main benefit of making participation simpler for businesses (especially for SMEs) and management simpler for the public authorities. This paper lists key EU policy documents concerning the topic of e-procurement. It discusses tools that can be implemented throughout individual phases of the procurement process as well as the additional elements that are used to expand the possibilities of the e-procurement system. The application of electronic procurement that varies across the member countries is also described. The functionalities are provided by a central national e-procurement systems and also by e-procurement systems of specific procuring entities. In Poland some e-services are available, but provided on separate platforms. New platform, that link together most of the services, should be ready in 2020.