Interproc brings new standards and regulations for public buyers across Europe

Since April 2021 Mercell has been part of the Trans European eProcurement implementation (Interproc) project. This EU-funded project, led by the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ – Direktoratet for forvaltning og økonomistyring), gathers different stakeholders in the area of e-procurement across Europe: public entities, universities, and solution providers. The goal is to implement new directives and support the interoperable use of structured information throughout the whole procurement process in EU and EEA member states.

As an Interproc consortium member, the Mercell Group is committed to implementing eForms notices in all its e-tendering platforms, as well as introducing the future ESPD 3.0 service to buyers and suppliers using Mercell’s solutions. These new modules will be released in 2023 and made available to our users in strict alignment with the country-specific date decided by the relevant authorities or at the latest by the 25th of October 2023 for eForms. The Interproc project will run until April 2023.

eForms

eForms is the new standard to advertise tenders in Europe

In line with the European directive 2019/1780 of September 23, 2019, the current standard forms will be retired at the end of 2023. A new set of forms called “eForms” is being introduced. The technical implementation, at both European and national levels, is ongoing.

Objectives of the European Commission

The introduction of eForms supports these objectives:

  • Improve access to business opportunities for companies, especially SMEs
  • Support governments in making “data-driven” decisions
  • Lower the cost of publishing and ease the administrative burden
  • Help fight corruption, detect possible collusion and cartels

Digital by design

The new notices are not meant to be printed on paper and filled with a pen. Instead, they are designed to be filled automatically by the tendering platforms.

Not an “off the shelves” solution

The new procurement notices provided by the European Commission cannot be implemented directly into the tendering and the national tender platforms as such. Instead, notices must be tailored by the countries and adjusted to the local procurement culture. As a result of national tailoring, public buyers in Spain won’t be presented with the exact same mandatory and optional fields as public buyers in Sweden or in the Netherlands.

Implementation of eForms in your Mercell platform

All Mercell tendering platforms will be upgraded with a brand new form editor enabling public buyers to fill in and publish compliant tender notices. More information to come!

ESPD 3.0

What is ESPD 3.0?

The European single procurement document (ESPD) is a self-declaration form used in public procurement procedures in Europe. Thanks to the ESPD, companies are able to meet obligations with a single self-declaration form that they can use in multiple eProcurement systems.

In this project we are developing support for the latest version of the ESPD which is 3.1.0. We are creating what we call the ESPD module, and we will integrate it with our tendering platform.

Connection to national and European evidence databases

It is included in the project that we will start to retrieve data from eCertis, a European database consisting of exclusion grounds and selection criteria and links to where to find evidence such as trade registers and tax data. We are also connecting the ESPD with national databases (eBevis in Norway) for retrieving evidence.

Implementation of ESPD 3.0 in your Mercell platform

Our ambition is to create an easy way for both buyers and suppliers to use the ESPD so in the Interproc project we are giving input to both eCertis and to eBevis on how the data they provide can be more useful and have better quality. Together we are improving the data sources to be used by buyers and suppliers to make it easier for them to use and understand the ESPD.

ESPD supplier response and interoperability

Since ESPD is a standard, the ESPD response created by the supplier can be used in all EU- and EEA member states, and in all eProcuring systems that support ESPD version 3.0.1.

More about Interproc

To read more about Interproc, please visit the project’s official website:
https://site.vortal.biz/interproc/

You can also be notified of Interproc progress by following the project on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/interproc-project/

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