This is the 4th european conference on e-public procurement organized by opet and the three previous conferences were organized in barcelona, lisbon and porto focusing the preparation and implementation of the new eu directives on public procurement approved on 2014 (2014/23/eu, 2014/24/eu, 2014/ 25/eu).

These directives were transposed by eu member states and major challenges stem from contracting complex and technological services using multi-attribute award criteria and performance requirements, or performance based contracting, because most traditional rules and procedures have been designed to contract public works or standardized goods using the award criterion of minimal price.

However, this is the fastest growing business within european public markets with an annual growth rate higher than 10 %, and accounting now for more than 6% of eu gdp, explaining why discussing and proposing better approaches and solutions for this type of public procurement has a vital importance for most public authorities and corporations in consulting, legal and financial/ accounting services, design, informatics, communications (ict), health, personal services, transportation, logistics , energy and environment.

This conference will focus on major challenges and problems stemming from this type of contracting and will explore innovative approaches and methods overcoming such shortcomings using new possibilities offered by the new directives and by the new tools and services of the digital economy. Best practices from several sectors are discussed and general recommendations will be discussed helping public buyers to contract better and economic operators to have a more comprehensive participation in public markets.

The event will include an workshop devoted face to face meetings promoted to support preliminary consultations for public authorities to search for better information from sellers to meet their needs previously expressed to the conference organization.