e-CERTIS is a free, on-line source of information to help companies and contracting authorities to cope with the different forms of documentary evidence required for cross-border tenders for public contracts in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. The EU seeks through its

procurement Procurement is the process of locating and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. The term may also refer to a contractual ...

regulations to promote the

free movement of goods The European single market, also known as the European internal market or the European common market, is the single market comprising mainly the member states of the European Union (EU). With certain exceptions, it also comprises Iceland, L ...

and

services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a ...

across internal borders and recognizes that the variety of certification systems and evidence requirements across the 27 Member States, one Candidate Country (

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

) and the three

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Asso ...

(EEA) countries (

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

) can create unnecessary complication and uncertainty, reducing the attractiveness to businesses of bidding for contracts to supply goods and services to public authorities in a different member state. e-CERTIS therefore exists to help businesses, especially

small and medium-sized enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by many national agencies and international organiza ...

, to understand what information is being requested during a procurement exercise. Similarly, e-CERTIS helps public bodies (contracting authorities) to recognise and process official documents issued in another Member State (such as company registration documents or operating licenses) when they receive them in the context of a public procurement procedure. e-CERTIS was launched at the end of 2010. Maintenance of the system was initially voluntary on the part of EU member states, but the 2014 Directive on Public Procurement mandated maintenance and use of the system by 18 October 2018 at the latest, 30 months after the deadline for transposition of most elements of the directive. Whilst use of the system to check documents is mandatory, the fact that e-Certis suggests that a document from country A is comparable to another document from country B will not be treated as creating a legally binding obligation to accept the document.European Commission
e-Certis
updated 9 March 2017, accessed 30 June 2018

External link

* eCerti
website

References

{{Reflist European Union Government Procurement in the European Union