Improving SME's access to public procurement

Call summary

Scene Setter

Improving SMEs’ access to public procurement is an important objective for the European

Commission. The SMEs weight in above threshold procurement is still low when compared

with their contribution to GDP (only 45% compared to 58%). The participation of SMEs in

cross-border procurement is even lower.

The recent public procurement reform introduced specific legislative measures in this area,

including an encouragement to divide contracts into lots; the limitation of the turnover required

to participate in a tender procedure; and the reduction of documentation requirements. These

measures address several of the barriers SMEs face, but others, such as lack of knowledge

about the procedures, especially in other member States, limited tender skills and experience,

little dialogue with procurers, etc. remain. These issues are better tackled by support to the

SMEs directly.

The current action is designed to give support to SMEs through co-financing actions of

intermediate organisations supporting SMEs’ participation in public procurement, especially

cross border. As a result, these organisations should offer more and better support. This

measure should complement the information on Your Europe Business and the efforts done by

the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) in this field and serve as a basis for a better

understanding of the SMEs’ concrete needs and developing more precise tools. Furthermore,

certain tools developed under this project as well as the experience gained could be transferred

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to the EEN for further dissemination to SMEs.

This action will be implemented through a call for proposals. As the needs of the SMEs vary

from country to country and from sector to sector, this measure will give flexibility to the

organisations submitting the proposal to tailor their services to their client needs. However, the

action could cover several measures such as exchange of information on procurement between

the Member States (tenders alerts and guides on what is specific to the respective country on

public procurement), training and advisory services to SMEs, business-to-procurers events,

partner-finding support, etc.

Budget Information

800 000 euros

Financing rate : 75%