Public procurement: new classification system to provide all businesses with easier access to public contracts
.The European Commission has adopted a Regulation that updates the Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV), which is the EU-wide classification system for public procurement contracts. The new system will be more user-friendly and will take into account recent developments in technology, making it easier for businesses, including Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Social Economy Enterprises (SEEs), to sell their products and services to public authorities across the EU. The CPV helps all EU businesses to easily identify contracts irrespective of the original language of the tender notice, thereby increasing competition, efficiency and transparency.
About the new 'Common Procurement Vocabulary'
The CPV has been transformed into a more user-friendly classification, with the new codes effective from 17 September 2008. The emphasis has been put on a streamlined structure that serves purchasers, making the CPV more "product driven" and less "material driven". The previous version of the CPV contained, for instance, different codes for chairs depending if they were made of plastic, wood or metal. Now the accent is on the product itself (ie chairs), and the additional specifications, if any, are to be added using appropriate codes of the supplementary vocabulary.
Many new areas are now covered in greater depth by the CPV: software packages and applications, medical appliances, equipment for airports and air traffic control, sport goods, music instruments, environmental services, Internet and wireless telecommunication services.
The new CPV and a summary of the amendments can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/publicprocurement/e-procurement_en.htm#cpv