GO EUROPEAN? HOW A EUROPEAN SUPPLIER QUALIFICATION AUTHORITY CAN UNLOCK CROSS-BORDER PROCUREMENT

The European Union market for public procurement is still fragmented. Cross-border participation remains limited, not primarily because of discrimination at the award stage, but due to fragmentation in national supplier qualification systems. Firms face high administrative costs, duplicative verification, and legal uncertainty when demonstrating eligibility across Member States, which discourages participation before tenders are even submitted. A European Supplier Qualification Mechanism is thus needed. It would be cost effective, reduce timelines, and would build a market through trust. Existing approaches, based on decentralised public verification or voluntary private standards are insufficient on all three accounts. The existing Italian SOA provides a model in which accredited entities perform legally binding pre-qualification under public supervision, producing reusable certificates recognised across procedures and, if adopted at the EU level, across borders. A European framework for supplier qualification could not only strengthen the Single Market, but also provide a credible institutional basis for future strategic procurement initiatives.