European Commission Proposes New Public Procurement Act to Simplify Rules and Strengthen European P…

The European Commission proposed a new Public Procurement Act consolidating three existing procurement directives and procurement provisions scattered across sectoral legislation into a single directly applicable regulation, aiming to simplify rules, cut administrative burden and increase legal certainty. EU public procurement spending is about €2.6 trillion a year, around 15% of GDP. The proposal is expected to deliver annual administrative savings of €650 million, including €80 million for public buyers and €570 million for economic operators. The Best Price-Quality Ratio would become the standard award method, with quality criteria weighted at least 30%, or 50% for labour-intensive contr…