EU Proposes Public Procurement Reform and Innovation Act

Key points

• The Commission adopted a procurement reform merging three directives on public contracts, concessions and public entities into one regulation, cleaning up over 26 sectoral acts.
• Procurement procedures are cut from five to three: open, dynamic and innovation, each allowing buyers to negotiate with candidates.
• A single European procurement platform will offer all EU tenders, single registration, automatic translation and interoperability with existing national and regional platforms.
• At least 30% of award weighting must rest on quality criteria covering social, environmental, security and resilience, and innovation, which buyers can mix.
• European preference stays voluntary in general but becomes mandatory in strategic sectors such as clean tech, nuclear, automotive, cloud and AI, and critical medicines via sectoral laws.
• The European Innovation Act sets quality at no less than 50% of R&D award criteria, of which at least 15% for innovation.
• The Innovation Act caps award at 60 days after tender close and estimates €26 billion in additional annual profits for innovative firms and €1 billion in savings for public buyers.
• The EU will create a Competence Centre for IP valuation with a voluntary EU framework and make regulatory sandboxes more accessible in areas not covered by EU legislation.