The reform of rules governing public procurement above the EU thresholds, which entered into force on 18 April 2016, aims to make procurement procedures more efficient, simple and flexible, and to facilitate the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in procurement procedures. The reformed legal framework permits contracting authorities to make more use of public procurement to support strategic objectives. These particularly include social, environmental and innovative aspects. The new rules of the Act against Restraints of Competition also set out the main exceptions from procurement law. This ensures that municipalities in particular will have greater legal certainty when they provide public services.

More flexible procurement procedures at national level too

The new rules on procurement below the EU thresholds will take the flexible provisions in the new rules for procurement above the EU thresholds and apply them to the awarding of public contracts for supplies and services at national level. The new rules were announced in February 2017 and entered into force for the Federation on 2 September 2017 via the amendment to the administrative provisions regarding Section 55 of the Federal Budget Code. The Länder will adapt their budget rules to include the rules on procurement below the EU thresholds in the coming months.

The Act against Restraints of Competition and the key ordinances, and particularly the Ordinance on the Award of Public Contracts, set out the legal framework for the inclusion of these criteria at various stages of the procurement process, e.g. in the specification, the award criteria and the contract performance clauses.

For example, contracting authorities can specify an environmentally friendly production process, as long as this does not mean that the market is reserved for certain companies and as long as the requirements to use a certain production process are not discriminatory. In this way, for example, green electricity, timber from sustainable forest management, or organically grown and fairly traded food can be procured.

Find out more about strategic procurement here.

Promoting eProcurement

With regard to contracts above the EU thresholds, all tender documents, and particularly the specification, must now (since 18 April 2016) be freely accessible and available free of charge online. This reduces the amount of effort companies need to make to find out about and bid for contracts – procurement procedures will become quicker. By 18 October 2018, all contracting authorities and contractors must have moved entirely to the online handling of procurement procedures for public procurement and concessions above the EU thresholds. This means that – apart from a few exceptions – tenders, requests to participate, declarations of interest and confirmations of interest can no longer be accepted unless they are submitted online.

The Federal Government’s procurement portal

The entire procedures for public procurement below the EU thresholds will be digitised just like public procurement above the EU thresholds. The website www.evergabe-online.de can be used to conduct procurement procedures entirely online. Nothing needs to be sent by post.