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Herrera Anchustegui, Ignacio --- "Division into lots and demand aggregation – extremes looking for the correct balance?" [2016] ELECD 1392; in Ølykke, S. Grith; Sanchez-Graells, Albert (eds), "Reformation or Deformation of the EU Public Procurement Rules" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 125

Book Title: Reformation or Deformation of the EU Public Procurement Rules

Editor(s): Ølykke, S. Grith; Sanchez-Graells, Albert

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785361807

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Division into lots and demand aggregation – extremes looking for the correct balance?

Author(s): Herrera Anchustegui, Ignacio

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

The 2014 Directive aims at increasing efficient public spending and ensuring best value for money for contracting authorities. To achieve this, the 2014 Directive promotes fostering SMEs’ participation in public procurement tenders and adopts a demand aggregation policy. The 2011 Proposal incorporated a pro-SME suggestion to divide public contracts into lots, which resulted in the adoption of Article 46 of the 2014 Directive. Its outcome is a compromise between a strong suggestion for contracting authorities to divide contracts and a softer approach. As a result, division into lots is not mandatory in all cases, but Member States can make it compulsory for certain contracts under national law. Concomitantly, the 2014 Directive also promotes and encourages demand aggregation techniques such as framework agreements, dynamic purchasing systems and centralised purchasing. However, aggregating demand to reduce costs and increase buyer power dis-incentivises contracting authorities from dividing contracts into lots, and, therefore, risks impairing SME participation. This chapter discusses how these provisions have been incorporated into the 2014 Directive and which stakeholders have shaped their content, while showing how these trends clash, which, in practice, requires an exercise in balancing.