Erhvervsudvalget 2010-11 (1. samling)
KOM (2010) 0571 Bilag 3
Offentligt
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European Commission, DG Internal Market and Services
Rue Joseph II 59
1049 Brussels
Belgium
[email protected]
MINISTER FOR ECONOMIC
AND BUSINESS AFFAIRS
Consultation on the Green Paper on expanding the use of e-
Procurement in the EU
MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC
AND BUSINESS AFFAIRS
General Comments
The Danish government welcomes the initiative by the European Com-
mission to expand the use of electronic procurement within the European
Union.
The Danish government agrees that e-Procurement has the potential to
yield large efficiency gains in the individual purchases, the overall ad-
ministration of public procurement and the general functioning of the
markets for government contracts.
The Danish government also agrees that expanding the use of e-
Procurement will lead to greater accessibility and transparency as a direct
result of businesses’ possibilities of on-line screening for opportunities
and immediate access to tender documentation.
E-Procurement will speed up individual procedures and reduce adminis-
trative costs for both economic operators and contracting authorities
alike.
Additionally, e-Procurement will promote the integration of EU procure-
ment markets due to the reduction of distance barriers, which traditional
paper based environments are hindered by. E-Procurement has the poten-
tial to reduce information gaps, thereby widening the pool of possible
suppliers and potentially enlarging markets.
Despite these significant potential gains of e-Procurement, it is my im-
pression that the greatest obstacle to the expanding use of e-Procurement
is the perception among contracting authorities and suppliers that e-
Procurement entails considerable investments and that the benefits hereof
are uncertain.
In addition to this, there is a predominant perception among contracting
authorities that there are large technological risks attained to a conversion
to e-Procurement, which further hinders expansion of e-Procurement.
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Specific Comments
The Danish government would like to applaud the Commission for ensur-
ing that no obstacles exist within the procurement directives for contract-
ing authorities to apply e-Procurement.
The Danish government would also like to stress the importance of en-
couraging the use of e-Procurement through incentives as opposed to in-
troducing legal requirements. Such incentives should be applied in order
to convince contracting authorities to apply e-Procurement. Incentives
could be in the form of further reduced time limits or something entirely
new.
It is the opinion of the Danish government that standardisation should be
a priority for the European Commission in its efforts to promote e-
Procurement. The introduction of standards ensures considerable simpli-
fication and cost savings.
This standardisation effort should not solely concentrate on e-
Procurement platforms. Standardisation of digital signatures in order to
promote interoperability must also continue.
The Danish government thus supports the Commissions existing efforts
regarding standardisation of digital signatures as these efforts promote
more effective e-Procurement systems. These efforts include establishing
trust regarding digital signatures and eID and improving ETSI-standards
among others. Together these initiatives provide an important step in
achieving increased interoperability of digital signatures.
Early experience from Danish contracting authorities also implies that
standards and open source components make an excellent foundation for
IT-developers to further develop the best possible technical solutions.
Open source solutions saves both time and costs for IT-developers who
much more easily are able to develop e-Procurement systems and making
these available for contracting authorities. The immediate goal hereby
should be to increase the supply of digital solutions and thereby competi-
tion in order to attain inexpensive prices that small and medium sized en-
terprises can afford.
The Danish government therefore encourages the Commission to focus
its efforts towards the development of standards and open source solu-
tions.