Correcting the Lost Decade of Electronic Public Procurement in the EU

This paper critiques the EU’s electronic public procurement framework under Directive 2014/24/EU for failing to deliver on its transformative promise. The Directive digitised legacy procedures, resulting in continued reliance on notices and insufficient data capture, and created an asymmetric evolution for initiatives such as eForms and the Public Procurement Data Space. To address these deficiencies in the forthcoming revision of the procurement Directives, the paper advocates for the correction of the legal limitations and the creation of a digital-first procurement system fully integrated with the broader public administration of the Member States.