Reporting period:
eCertis
Note: This page has been moved into the new Access to Public Procurement page. Please edit the content there!
Do you work for an EEA-based company wishing to participate in a public procurement procedure? Or are you a public buyer evaluating bids received from various EEA countries? If so, eCertis can help you understand what evidence your opposite number needs, or what additional information it should provide.
DisclaimereCertis is for reference purposes only and is not legally binding. It shows what kind of evidence is required to fulfil a criterion. For example, how can a supplier show to country A that it has paid taxes in country B.
eCertis and the Single Market – why does it matter?
eCertis helps:
- suppliers (tenderers) to identify what proof they need to submit when they are awarded a contract in an EEA country,
- contracting authorities (buyers) in EEA countries to understand which documents they can accept or need to ask tenderers for.
The Commission seeks to support both suppliers and buyers in the public procurement field by making all the information they need about exclusion grounds and selection criteria available through a single service. Accessible information is needed to help make the Single Market a reality.
eCertis in a nutshell
- Due to a restructuring of eCertis to support multiple domains, encoded data was adjusted and simplified. This led to a drecrease of the numbers of items in the service, which now contains a total of 2095 records (criteria, items of evidence, and issuing bodies), a 15.32% decrease on last year, when the number stood at 2474. 1141 criteria (a 20.96% decrease on last year) and 673 items of evidence (a 3.17% decrease on last year) had been added to eCertis by 19 April 2021.
- The system contains information on 281 bodies that issue certificates, meaning that 36 less issuers were registered in 2021.
- 14 941 unique visitors in the last quarter of 2020, an increase of 2.10% on last year.
- 14.87% of certificates can be viewed online.
- A sample is available for 24% of the items of evidence listed in the system.
Key messages
- A positive trend in terms of data availability by the EU countries can be noticed in eCertis, however, there is room for improvement in the provision of documentary evidence. It is necessary to continue completing the data that is missing.
- Data remains a priority for the new Commission and eCertis is set to grow in importance, thus high-data quality will become even more essential. In view of the growing number of visits to and connections with eCertis, it is necessary that EU countries constantly update and improve the documentary evidence they provide in the service.
- eCertis is under continuous development to increase its functionalities and to support MSs to provide better data.
Overall Performance (2 indicators combined)
Trends
Performance indicators
Overview
Graph legend
The final classification is calculated as follows, taking into account the ‘total’ score for each indicator (last row of each table):
Red | Both sub indicators are red |
---|---|
Yellow | All other |
Green | If both sub indictors are green or if there is a mix between green and yellow |
For eCertis to be reliable, participating countries must upload all the necessary information.
2 indicators show the extent to which each country is doing this:
- criteria completeness (how many of the criteria in Directive 2014/24/EU have been entered in eCertis for each country?)
- evidence recorded (number of items of evidence associated with each criterion)
Categories of criteria
Data are collected in 3 categories of “grounds for exclusion”:
- criminal convictions (EG‑CC)
- non-payment of taxes and social security contributions (EG‑PT)
- insolvency, conflict of interests or professional misconduct (EG‑INS).
… and 4 categories of “selection criteria”:
- economic and financial standing (SC‑EF)
- quality assurance schemes and environmental management standards (SC‑QA)
- suitability to pursue the professional activity concerned (SC‑ST)
- technical and professional ability (SC‑TP)
Indicator [1]: Criteria Completeness
The graph shows the percentage of criteria set at EU level that have been recorded in eCertis for each country. Higher scores show that countries have entered more data in the eCertis database.
Graph legend
Red | ≤ 0 % |
---|---|
Yellow | > 0 %, ≤ 50 % |
Green | > 50 % |
Main finding
- The majority of the countries have provided at least some data on the exclusion grounds and selection criteria.
Exclusion grounds - 29 countries have an average classification of over 70%: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden.
Selection criteria - 19 countries have an average classification of over 50%: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Greece, Estonia, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia.
Indicator [2]: Evidence recorded
This indicator categorises the countries concerned based on the number of items of evidence recorded in the system for each type of criterion.
Graph legend
If the country has not entered any evidence data, the indicator is red; if it has entered more than one item of evidence, the indicator is green.
The final classification is calculated as follows, considering the “total” score for each table (last row of each table):
Red | All criteria are red |
---|---|
Yellow | A mixture of red and green values Red: min 1, max 3 (for exclusion grounds) or 4 (for selection criteria) Green: idem |
Green | All criteria are green |
Main finding
- All countries have provided data for most criteria categories of exclusion grounds. Information on selection criteria is still lagging behind.
- The following countries have data available for all categories of exclusion grounds and selection criteria: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Estonia, Finland, France, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia.
Priorities
- Foster better data quality
- Strengthen end users’ trust in the service
- Foster dissemination of eCertis in the EU Member States
- Promote interoperability between eCertis and other related IT-systems
- Facts and figures
Facts and figures
- The total number of items of evidence entered as certificates, declaration on oath or self-declaration varies significantly from country to country.
- Czechia and Finland uploaded new evidence with samples.
- In contrast, all evidence from Spain, France, Ireland, Latvia, Hungary and Norway are accessible free of charge.
- Free access to evidence increases participation in public procurement procedures. Priced evidence can prevent bidders from taking part in procedures. This is an important aspect of public procurement that should be tackled by public bodies, e.g. by reviewing existing processes and conducting a cost-benefit analysis.
Main IT development over the last year
There have been several recent developments in eCertis, designed to:
- cater for multiple domains;
- make eCertis easier to be used by adding a new homepage;
- increase the level of automation by updating the computer interface;
- increase the level of information by adding new concepts; and
- gather relevant KPIs in an automated way by using a Business Intelligence (BI) tool.
More about the information system
eCertis is an online database listing the eligibility criteria and documentary evidence needed in each European Economic Area (EEA) country for companies to take part in public procurement.
Public procurement – the purchase of works, goods or services by public bodies – is regulated in these countries to ensure compliance with the principles of transparency, equal treatment and non-discrimination.
To be able to bid for a public contract, firms need to know what rules apply and what criteria they have to meet. The EU has set out these criteria in 4 legal acts:
- the Public procurement Directive
- the Public procurement Directive for entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors
- the Public procurement Dircetive on procedures for the award
- the European Single Procurement Document Regulation.
To prove they meet the eligibility criteria (a term used for both the exclusion criteria and what the Directives call the selection criteria), companies must provide evidence documenting:
- their suitability and technical and professional ability to perform the contract correctly
- their lack of criminal convictions and their payment of taxes, for example an extract from the criminal records register and a tax payment certificate.
eCertis is managed by the Commission and participating countries are obliged to make sure the information in it is accurate and up to date.
Participants
All EU countries, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The database may later expand to include other countries that join the EU.