Cross-border e-procurement

Mitja Ozbič - European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation of the Municipalities of Gorizia, Nova Gorica and Šempeter-Vrtojba – EGTC GO, IT-SI

 

The EGTC GO (IT-SI) faces difficulties when launching calls for tenders as diverging national e-procurement platforms are utilised in the two countries. Projects implemented by the EGTC have a deep impact on both sides of the border, but due to different IT standards, language barriers and complicated input and data entry mechanisms and different thresholds for tendering procedures, the economic operators are able to apply only to the national platform of the country where the business is located.

This clearly prevents the cross-border market to become fully integrated.

Mitja Ozbič, the legal specialist who consulted the case submitted under the II call for proposals of b-solutions, confirms that the obstacles identified derive from the transposition of the EU directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement into diverging national laws.

The main solution proposed by Ozbič consists in a new EU general regulation that does not envisage executive regulations by the Member States.

Alternatively, the obstacles can be eliminated on a short term basis simply through the improvement of the systems design by the software providers in cooperation with the competent national authorities or using EU tools, such as the 2019-2 CEF Telecom Call and EC’s collaborative platform “Joinup”.

Furthermore, a broader implementation of the EGTC Regulation 1302/2013/EU would solve the obstacle concerning the existence of different national thresholds for tendering procedures.

Finally, it is worth to mention that the EGTC GO already partially resolved the problem by purchasing an e-procurement software for internal use.

 

Mitja Ozbič’s full report on the Advice Case offers a complete insight on the obstacles identified and the solutions proposed.

 

The information here provided have been developed in the framework of b-solutions, an initiative of the European Comission’s DG REGIO managed by the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR).

The reports here included are the result of a consultation provided by legal/cross-border cooperation experts on obstacles of a legal or administrative nature– referred to as Advice Cases - selected in the framework of the II Call for Proposals of the initiative b-solutions.

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eGovernment b-solutions Pilot projects