As the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) negotiates a report on reforming EU public procurement rules, data from companies shows that the biggest barrier in public tendering is not red tape, but the race to the bottom on price. This evidence provides support for the inclusion of quality criteria – including respect for collective bargaining – into procurement rules.
The 2015 Eurobarometer representative survey – in which over 10,000 businesses across the EU participated – showed that a majority (56 per cent) identified excessive emphasis on price as a key barrier to bidding. As a consequence, only 18 per cent of companies took part in public procurement in the two years prior, while an additional seven per cent had plans to do so. This means that three quarters of companies did not participate in public tenders. A 2023 report by the European Court of Auditors found that this downward trend has continued unabated since: the share of tenders in which only one company participated almost doubled in the past 10 years.
In Poland, the country of rapporteur Piotr Müller (ECR) who drafts the IMCO report on procurement reform, 54 per cent of companies see the lowest price as a major obstacle and another 14 per cent as a moderate obstacle. More than two-third of Polish companies would thus benefit from public tenders being awarded on quality criteria, and not just the lowest price. Moreover, small businesses (both in terms of employees and turnover) are more likely to say that price is given too much weight.
Oliver Roethig, UNI Europa Regional Secretary, commented: “These findings contradict the narrative that avoiding new ‘barriers’ means keeping procurement fast, easy and accessible for small companies. In reality, when the cheapest offer wins, many decent firms don’t even enter the race. Smaller and socially responsible businesses simply can’t compete with low-cost bidders that cut corners on wages, safety or quality. That’s why the reform of EU procurement rules currently underway should allow public authorities to include quality criteria – such as respect for collective bargaining – into public tendering processes.”