New paper out

I've uploaded to SSRN yesterday the final version of a new paper on the evolution of electronic procurement under Directive 2014/24/EU. Here's the abstract:

"Traditionally, public procurement has been conducted on paper without any formal involvement of technology or electronic features. In 2004, the previous round of procurement directives included the possibility of procurement to be done electronically. However, this was a possibility afforded to EU Member States, which was not taken up extensively, with only Portugal deploying a full electronic procurement system. The obligation to use electronic procurement appeared later in the 2014 directives, especially Directive 2014/24/EU, which covers most public contracts subject to EU rules and where the legal architecture for electronic procurement is laid down. Such a transition was expected to bring benefits like reduced administration costs, streamlined and faster procedures, improved transparency, better monitoring, and more cross-border competition.

Now that we are reaching the end of the lifecycle for the current round of Directives, this paper discusses the evolution of electronic procurement under the legal architecture of Directive 2014/24/EU. It introduces the electronic procurement obligations arising from the 2014 Directive before then moving into what the European Commission has done to develop the practical and regulatory landscape. This will show that the Commission focus has been mostly on improving data collection and quality instead of a paradigm change that could be enabled by a digital first approach to public procurement. This has not been achieved under the current regulatory framework."