Working Group on Small and Medium Enterprises

Proposal for a working plan for 2005

Topic: Identifying innovative methods to promote participation from SMEs in public procurement Examples:

- Combinatorial procurement auctions- Small business set-asides- Electronic auctions- …..- …..

Activities

Step 1: Identifying a set of innovative methods to facilitating entry from SMEs in public procurement

Step 2: Assessing the potential for applying these methods in EU public procurement. What are the pros and cons of different methods?

Step 3: Documenting the findings in a report at the end of 2005

Specifics

Presentation of 2-3 short cases at each meeting describing experiences with novel procurement methods.

Example: The Swedish National Road Administration recently tested combinatorial bidding in the awards of some 60 contracts for the updating of road markings on national roads with a good result: new and small firms submitted bids.