Report on the review of the practical application of the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD)

The ESPD, which is mainly provided for in Article 59 of Directive 2014/24/EU, is conceived as a self-declaration based on a standard form to be adopted by the Commission by means of an implementing act. It offers preliminary evidence concerning exclusion criteria (e.g. criminal convictions, grave professional misconduct) and selection criteria (financial, economic and technical capacity) so that normally the full set of underlying documentation (e.g. attestations, certificates) only needs to be presented by the winning economic operator.

According to Directive 2014/24/EU, the ESPD shall be provided exclusively in electronic form. However, to allow for the transition to the obligatory use of electronic means of communication in the EU, both electronic and paper versions of the ESPD may exist until 18 April 2018.

Given the importance and innovative character of the ESPD, the EU legislator provided for the Commission to review the practical application of the ESPD, taking into account the technical development of databases in the Member States, and report thereon to the European Parliament and the Council by 18 April 2017.