The European Commission’s Procurement Evaluation: Complex Rules Still Holding Suppliers Back, and How Mercell Bidding Helps Bridge the Gap
A Regulatory Framework That Still Struggles to Deliver Simplicity
In October 2025, the European Commission published its long-awaited evaluation of the EU procurement directives. The results show a familiar pattern: despite years of reform, the framework remains complex, rigid, and difficult to apply in practice.
While several objectives have been partially achieved, such as greater transparency and broader SME participation, the evaluation makes it clear that procurement rules have not yet delivered the intended simplicity and flexibility.
The Commission highlights several recurring challenges:
- Ambiguity in core concepts like “contract,” “central purchasing authority,” and “publicly controlled body.”
- Difficulty interpreting key rules, including inter-authority cooperation, exclusion grounds, reliance on third-party capacity, and abnormally low tenders.
- Unclear market access for non-EU suppliers, leaving many unsure about participation rights.
- Limited progress on digitalization, with the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) failing to deliver expected efficiency gains.
- Innovation lagging behind, even as social and environmental criteria are more frequently integrated.
The message is clear: EU procurement has evolved, but not enough to make life easier for suppliers, especially small and medium-sized companies that want to compete across borders.
Where the Process Breaks Down for Suppliers
For many suppliers, particularly SMEs, the gap between policy intention and day-to-day practice remains wide. The Commission’s data show that while competition is healthy for large procurements (an average of 9.2 tenders per contract above €20 million), the share of procurements receiving only one bid is increasing.
This points to a systemic problem. Regulatory complexity and inconsistent interpretation continue to deter participation. Even digitalization has delivered mixed results. Tools are fragmented, unintuitive, and often vary across Member States.
In practice, this means:
- Suppliers lose time and resources navigating unclear qualification and exclusion criteria.
- Repeated manual work in tender preparation persists despite digital tools.
- Transparency exists on paper, but data quality issues make it difficult to analyze competition or detect corruption.
Public procurement is expected to drive innovation, sustainability, and fair competition. Yet in its current form, the system often slows progress instead of enabling it.
Mercell Bidding: Turning Complex Rules into Winnable Tenders
Public procurement is rule-heavy. Your job is to find winnable opportunities and act fast. Mercell Bidding takes care of the heavy lifting so you spend less time decoding regulations and more time submitting competitive bids.
Here’s how suppliers benefit in real terms:
1. Find the Right Tenders Fast
Build or improve your monitoring profile in minutes using AI. Your Monitoring Inbox then surfaces live, best-fit tenders, no noise, just relevant opportunities aligned with your focus, regions, and keywords and CPV codes.
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AI Profile Builder & Enhancer: fills gaps, adds relevant CPVs and keywords, and uncovers hidden opportunities others miss.
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Meaningful coverage: access national and local notices, including below-threshold tenders that rarely appear on basic portals.
2. Qualify in Minutes, Not Hours
Skip the document trawl. AI Tender Summaries extract eligibility, exclusion, scope, and deadline details so you can make confident go/no-go decisions fast. Focus your energy on the right tenders and create bids that stand out.
3. Plan Proactively with Market and Competitor Insights
Go beyond listings. Mercell Bidding’s provides insights that shows who buys what, when contracts expire, and which competitors are winning. This helps you time your approach, shape your offer, and avoid last-minute bidding.
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Identify expiring contracts and emerging demand.
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Benchmark competitor wins to refine your positioning.
4. Collaborate Seamlessly from Discovery to Submission
Work as one team in a shared workspace. Save, watch, comment, and share tenders, then track progress in My Opportunities (Saved, Invitations, Active, Past). Fewer emails, fewer handoffs, faster bids.
5. Rely on Quality Data
A dedicated local team classifies and enriches every notice in real time. You get accurate updates, verified CPVs, and reliable alerts, not guesswork.
6. Build Capability While You Bid
Customers gain access to Bid Excellence — templates, courses, and certifications designed to improve bid quality and win rates. Practical tools that help your team compete more effectively, based on how public buyers actually evaluate.
The bottom line: free portals show tenders. Mercell helps you decide where to compete and how to win. With better matching, faster qualification, richer insight, and smoother collaboration, your team can focus on growth instead of red tape.
Bridging the Policy and Practice Divide
The European Commission’s findings highlight a truth many in public procurement already know: regulations alone do not simplify procurement. Modern tools and better processes do.
While the EU continues refining its legislative framework, platforms like Mercell Bidding deliver the flexibility and clarity that suppliers need right now.
By reducing complexity, improving data quality, and enabling true digital collaboration, we help suppliers navigate the rules confidently, compete fairly, and contribute to a more efficient and transparent procurement ecosystem.
Conclusion
The European Commission’s evaluation makes it clear that public procurement in the EU remains a work in progress. The system has improved, but complexity and inconsistency still hinder progress.
At Mercell, we believe technology should bridge that gap. Mercell Bidding empowers suppliers, especially SMEs, to engage, comply, and compete effectively, even when the rules are unclear.
In doing so, we are not just supporting suppliers. We are helping Europe move closer to a procurement landscape that is simple, fair, and innovative.