EIBF Contributes to European Commission Consultation on public procurement

The European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) is pleased to announce that it has submitted an answer to the European Commission’s consultation on public procurement, providing evidence for the upcoming revision of the Directives, i.e., the European regulatory framework on public procurement. 

EIBF is the voice of booksellers in the European Union and globally. EIBFs members are national Booksellers Associations, who represent all kinds of book retailers, a majority of those being small and medium-sized independent and family-owned bookshops. As representatives of SME and micro retailers, for whom public procurement contracts often represent a significant part of their business, EIBF welcomes this timely revision of the Directives and the opportunity to provide feedback on its necessary improvements.  

Today, it has become increasingly difficult for small independent bookshops to compete in public procurement calls for tenders prepared by local or regional public authorities. This is due mainly to:  

• Excessively large tenders 

• Too many and excessively complex requirements:  

• Lowest price as main (and often only) criteria 

• A practice of awarding contracts by drawing lots 

• Lack of legal options to prioritise local public procurement of books 

For the above reasons, when it comes to the public supply of books, the current legislative framework, and its national transposition, have not succeeded in countering the growing exclusion of small and local bookshops from the procurement process. EIBF thus calls for decision makers to carefully reconsider some of the rules set out in the 2014 EU Directive on Public Procurement in order to allow for a wide range of businesses to participate and compete on a level playing field in public procurement call for tenders. See more information on the specificities of the book sector and the impact of public procurement in the attached position paper.