eForms are an EU legislative open standard for publishing public procurement data. They are standard forms used by public buyers to publish notices on Tenders Electronic Daily—an online portal for public procurement notices from across the EU.
eForms were established under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780, which was published on 25 October 2019. The standard forms to be used for the publication of procurement notices are set out in the annex to this regulation.
Well-implemented eForms will increase the ability of businesses and other organisations to find procurement notices. They will also reduce the administrative burden for buyers, increase the ability of governments to make data-driven decisions about public spending, and make public procurement more transparent.
eForms need to be implemented in national eProcurement systems and they must be tailored to national needs. They do not constitute an “off-the-shelf” law that can be implemented by IT departments alone. Public procurement decision makers must first meet with stakeholders to decide how the various attributes of eForms should be implemented.
The European Commission is drafting a handbook for the implementation of eForms for policy makers. The draft version will soon be shared with key stakeholders. The final version is expected to be publicly available in the first quarter of 2020.