Three Weeks On: Who Wants What Changed in the EU's Procurement Draft

National officials examined the Commission's Public Procurement Act for the first time on 17 and 18 September and were scheduled to return to it on 2 October to go through Parts I and II. In between, business lobbies, trade unions, engineers, a group of national governments and China's commerce ministry each said what they want cut, kept or added. For a bidder, the reactions show which parts of the draft are likely to move.

Quick answer: none of the organisations covered here wants the proposal withdrawn, but each wants a different version. SMEs want mandatory lots, BusinessEurope warns against overloading procurement with other policy goals, and unions want binding social conditions. Germany, France and others would rather keep a directive than adopt a regulation, nine smaller states have warned against broad European preference, and Beijing calls those clauses discriminatory. Parliament has no rapporteur yet; the joint target for finishing negotiations is the end of 2027.

The reactions in five numbers

• 9 member states (Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Sweden, Slovakia) signed a December 2025 paper urging "the highest possible caution" on European preference
• €34,600 to €43,200 is the rise in the average combined cost of one above-threshold procedure between the 2008 to 2010 and 2019 to 2024 periods, in constant prices, in the Commission evaluation BusinessEurope cites. As a share of contract value, the same evaluation says, the cost fell to 0.9 percent
• More than 80 percent of a controlled company's activities must serve its controlling public buyer or related controlled entities, one condition for an in-house award to escape competition; SMEunited says the draft leaves that test untouched
• 2 working-party meetings on the draft were scheduled in the Council in its first three weeks: 17 and 18 September, then 2 October
• Q4 2027 is the target for concluding negotiations in the "One Europe, One Market" roadmap signed on 24 April 2026 by the Presidents of Parliament and the Commission and the Council Presidency

What business says

SMEunited wants stronger requirements to divide contracts into lots, the separate parts of a contract that can be bid for individually. Its President, Davide Galli, said on 9 September that dividing contracts into lots "is a key demand of European SMEs" and that the draft only lets member states make division mandatory, so SMEunited "encourages all Member States to provide for mandatory division into lots when possible". He called a mandatory best price-quality ratio with a minimum quality weighting "the shift SMEs have been asking for". Two gaps remain in his reading: the in-house exception keeps its 80 percent test, and the European-preference opt-out for "disproportionate costs" is undefined and "could be misused".

BusinessEurope welcomes digitalisation but warns against adding more policy requirements. Its Director General, Markus J. Beyrer, backed "the push for digitalisation, better data collection and transparency" the same day, but said procurement "is not a cure-all for every strategic challenge facing Europe" and that "overloading the rules with secondary objectives risks reducing competition and increasing administrative complexity".

Germany's Federal Chamber of Engineers (Bundesingenieurkammer) objects to replacing the directives with a regulation. Its president, Dr.-Ing. Heinrich Bökamp, said on 29 September that an SME-friendly procurement law "can only be created on the basis of directives and not through a directly applicable regulation", and the chamber asked for lots by trade and section and a two-stage procedure with pre-selection. The open-source association OSBA, responding at the German economy ministry's invitation, went further than most and proposed replacement wording: its statement of 30 September would turn Article 59's "public buyers may take innovation objectives into consideration" into "must", and "encouraging" open-source solutions into "requiring" them.

What unions say

The ETUC welcomed the draft as "a vital opportunity to ensure public money promotes quality jobs and collective bargaining" and noted it is the first EU procurement law to mention collective bargaining among social considerations. General Secretary Esther Lynch said the lowest-bidder approach "has been a disaster for the quality of goods and services". The union's demands go further than the text: mandatory social conditions, preference for companies with collective agreements, joint and several liability in subcontracting chains (making a main contractor answer for its subcontractors' breaches), and a guarantee that member states can keep rules stricter than the EU minimum. The ETUC says the switch from directives to a regulation "still raises concerns" on that last point.

What governments say

The dividing line among capitals is the legal form. According to deHavilland's roundup of 24 September, "a large group, including Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Finland, Austria, and several central and eastern European countries, favoured a Directive, citing concerns over administrative complexity, litigation, burdens on smaller contracting authorities, and the loss of national and regional flexibility", while the Netherlands supported the regulation and Denmark, Luxembourg and Slovakia "considered the legal instrument less important than the content".

The debate over European preference predates this proposal. The draft would let buyers favour EU bidders and "covered" bidders, those from countries whose agreements with the EU cover the purchase. Brussels Signal reported on 9 September that France "has driven the push for a hard 'Made in Europe' standard, while Germany has favoured a looser 'Made with Europe' formula open to trusted partners". The nine-state paper of December 2025, seen by Reuters, warned that "if applied broadly, 'European Preference' risks depriving European companies and our consumers of choice and competition, leading to higher prices and weaker innovation", and asked that any preference apply only for a set time in specific strategic sectors.

Two of Tendly's markets have started their own process. Slovakia's Public Procurement Office (Úrad pre verejné obstarávanie, ÚVO) said on 1 October it is finalising the national position and has brought municipalities, employers and unions to the table; one concern it named is the technical requirements of digitalisation, where "feasibility and deadlines" still need resolving. Lithuania, which chairs the Council from January 2027, said on 14 September it will use the presidency to advance the reform. At a Vilnius conference on 30 September, lawyer Laura Ziferman of Walless pointed to one practical gain: a buyer that has said at the outset it may negotiate could, under the draft, negotiate in an open procedure when the only bid exceeds its budget, which the current rules do not allow.

China objected on 17 September. He Yadong, spokesperson of China's Ministry of Commerce, said China is "very concerned" by the "European preference" clauses and urged the EU "to respect WTO rules, keep its market open and revise the discriminatory clauses". Le Moniteur published a first critical legal reading of the draft on 16 September and reported China's position on 21 September, both behind its paywall.

What is still open

Parliament's file is in its preparatory phase, with the committee referral pending and no rapporteur. The Council agenda for 2 October listed an examination of Parts I and II and a "topical debate" on the digital ecosystem; what delegations said is not public. Whether the final act is a regulation or a directive is still undecided.

What to do now

• Selling to public bodies that buy through their own in-house companies? SMEunited says the 80 percent test stays; check whether your target buyer's purchases go in-house before counting on an open tender.
• Bidding in Germany or France? Both governments favour keeping a directive, but the legal form is undecided. The EU proposal does not change today's rules; keep following the national requirements that apply, including any national reforms in the meantime.
• Bidding in Slovakia? ÚVO is collecting business views on the draft now and has named digitalisation requirements as one concern; a supplier with a view can raise it there.

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