Access to Public Procurement Contracts in EU: Perspective of SMEs

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to study public procurement market in the European Union (EU) from the perspective of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). An important component of the analysis is the European Code of Best Practices Facilitating Access by SMEs to Public Procurement Contracts of 2008, providing guidelines and good practices, and ongoing public procurement reform. SMEs are found as significant source of jobs, growth and innovation, thus, their share in public procurement should be higher than the current 45% of aggregate contract value above EU thresholds. Thus, SMEs perform much below their economic weight. Considering the fact, that public expenditures on goods, services and works account for approximately 14% of the EU’s GDP, public procurement may be recognized as the important trigger of economic recovery after the global crisis 2008+. Worth mentioning, public procurement may contribute to realization of the key EU2020 horizontal policies, focused on establishing more green, innovative and socially-inclusive economy. A key objective of newly established legislative measures is to open-up national public procurement markets to companies from the other EU countries, including cross-border procurement. Among important solutions aimed at enhancing higher participation of SMEs in the EU public procurement market there are, among others, fragmentation of contracts, reduction of turnover required to enter tender procedure and simplification of documentary requirements.