European single procurement document
The European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) is a self-declaration form used in public procurement procedures. Prior to its introduction, companies were required to submit numerous documents to prove their eligibility to participate (for example, evidence of tax payments or confirmation of no criminal convictions).
With the ESPD, these requirements can be fulfilled through a single self-declaration form. Only the successful tenderer must later provide the supporting documents. These documents are listed in the Commission’s eCertis service.
Important: During the initial phase, the European Commission provided an ESPD service to support the document’s uptake. As announced in 2018, the Commission’s ESPD service was deactivated on 2 May 2019.
To fully leverage the advantages of an electronic ESPD, integration with national eProcurement systems and national databases is essential. Such integration will allow for data reusability, automatic form pre-filling, and data exchange between different databases. As a result, both buyers and suppliers will benefit from greater automation, easier use of the ESPD, and reduced error rates.
The obligation to use the ESPD remains in force. Instead of using the Commission service, users should now rely on national ESPD services. Almost all EU countries currently provide one or more ESPD service. We keep a non-exhaustive, regularly updated list of ESPD providers. If your country is not on the list, or in case of any other questions, please contact one of the national ESPD contact points.
The advantage of using national services is that these can be better integrated with national eProcurement services and databases. This is necessary for users to get all of the electronic ESPD’s benefits.
If you are in the middle of a procedure and have used the Commission service up until now, or if you do not have access to another service, we recommend using one of the following services to complete your procedure (they are very similar to the EU one)
There are 3 possible ways to implement the ESPD
- ESPD data model, which enables integration of the eESPD service into national eProcurement solutions and/or pre-qualification services
- Open source version of the Commission eESPD service. The open source version is compatible with the ESPD data model and some elements can be adjusted to take into account national needs.
- Virtual company dossier (VCD), which allows the buyers to handle the eESPDs (like the first option) and the tenderers to benefit from an automated filling-in of the eESPD.
The ESPD and eCertis play a crucial role in the digital transformation of public procurement. They contribute to EU countries’ transition to full eProcurement, significantly reduce administrative burden and simplify access to cross-border tendering opportunities. The full potential of the ESPD can only be reached if integrated with national services like national databases or eTendering services. In this way, the ESPD will act as a ‘business passport’ for companies bidding for tenders anywhere in the EU. The amount of information available in eCertis is visualised and analysed in the Single Market Scoreboard.