The European Commission has announced a review of public procurement laws. The Commission has said change is necessary to cope with new e-procurement practices and to respond to more demand for public-private partnerships.

In its last Single Market News publication, the Commission's Directorate for Internal Market and Services states that there is a need for greater flexibility in procurement rules and more speed in processing deals, given that public bodies increasingly want to use private investment to fund major projects.

Furthermore, the transition to electronic procurement poses new challenges: the technology to support e-procurement is now in place.National and regional e-procurement platforms are developing and thereby delivering tangible benefits to contracting authorities and suppliers.

At European level, the challenge is two-fold: first, to ensure that the legal and policy environment keeps pace with this change; secondly, to avoid the emergence of a new generation of barriers to cross-border procurement which have their origin in different e-procurement models, information technology systems and applications.

The Commission is exploring ways in which EU procurement policy can respond to these challenges. In the short-term, it is preparing initiatives in the area of concessions and is looking closely at the issue of the application of procurement legislation to cases where local or other purchasing bodies cooperate in procurement.

It is also finalising an analysis of the take-up of e-procurement in which it will assess the existence of barriers to cross-border participation in electronic procurement marketplaces.

In parallel, the Commission is embarking on a comprehensive evaluation of EU procurement legislation. This evaluation, to be completed in spring 2011, will examine the effectiveness of EU rules in promoting open, contestable and sound procurement. The findings will be used to inform reflection on the need for a modernisation of EU procurement rules.