Europe’s public procurement system was built on a powerful idea: transparency.

Every contract, from local infrastructure to national IT projects, should be visible and open to competition.

It worked. Today, the European Union runs one of the most transparent procurement markets in the world, publishing millions of tenders each year worth around €2 trillion, or 13–14% of the EU’s GDP.

But there’s a hidden cost to this transparency: fragmentation.

Instead of one integrated marketplace, Europe has become a patchwork of more than 2,000 national, regional, and sector-specific tender portals. Each uses its own format, login, and language. For buyers, it’s manageable. For suppliers — especially SMEs — it’s exhausting.

This article explores how a system designed to improve access has unintentionally limited it, what it costs Europe in efficiency and competition, and how better integration could unlock the continent’s full procurement potential.

Europe’s transparency success and its hidden problem

Public procurement is one of Europe’s greatest governance achievements. It delivers transparency, prevents corruption, and opens public spending to fair competition. The principle is simple: every buyer must publish opportunities, and every supplier should be able to find them.

But transparency has a side effect. Over time, as Member States built their own systems to comply with EU rules, the result wasn’t one market… it was thousands.

From one market to a thousand tendering systems

Each country (and often each region or public authority) developed its own portal.

France has BOAMP, Germany has Bund.de, Spain uses Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público, and hundreds more exist for local and sector-specific contracts.

The European Commission estimates there are now over 2,000 separate procurement portals operating across the EU.

While each portal fulfils its legal purpose, none of them fully connect. Data structures differ, search tools vary, and language barriers remain a daily obstacle. The dream of a single European procurement market is still far from reality.

When access turns into complexity

The irony is that the system meant to simplify access often does the opposite.

Suppliers must register across multiple sites, manage countless logins, and check portals individually to stay up to date.

Even for experienced Bid Managers, the process is repetitive and error-prone. Opportunities are missed, deadlines slip by, and visibility across borders remains limited.

As a result, Europe’s procurement market is open in theory, but fragmented in practice.

And this fragmentation hits small suppliers hardest.

How fragmented tender systems hurt SMEs and competition?

Fragmentation doesn’t just make procurement inconvenient… it actively discourages participation.

The ones who lose most are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which make up 99 % of EU businesses but still capture a disproportionately small share of public contracts.

When the system is hard to navigate, SMEs simply don’t have the resources to keep up. And when fewer SMEs bid, competition weakens, reducing innovation and value for public money.

The SME disadvantage

Large companies can afford teams dedicated to monitoring tender portals and preparing bids. SMEs cannot.

The European Court of Auditors found that single-bid tenders, contracts that attract only one bidder, rose from 23.5 % in 2011 to 41.8 % in 2021, a clear sign that access and competition are shrinking.

This imbalance leaves smaller suppliers out of strategic, higher-value contracts. It’s not a question of capability, it’s a question of visibility.

Lost time, lost value

For every contract they pursue, SMEs often spend hours just finding, verifying, and downloading documentation from different portals. Each hour spent searching is an hour not spent preparing a strong bid.

The OECD notes that inefficiencies in procurement administration can raise costs by 20–30%, with reduced competition being a major drive.

The impact isn’t limited to suppliers. Fewer bids mean fewer choices for buyers, and ultimately, poorer outcomes for taxpayers.

Europe’s open market is strong in theory. In practice, fragmentation keeps it smaller than it should be.

Next, let’s quantify what that inefficiency costs.

The economic impact of procurement fragmentation

Procurement isn’t just an administrative process. It’s a key driver of Europe’s economy. When it’s efficient, it stimulates competition, innovation, and growth. When it’s fragmented, the opposite happens.

The costs of inefficiency ripple through the system, from lost supplier productivity to higher public spending.

Billions in missed efficiency

The OECD estimates that weak competition and administrative inefficiencies increase procurement costs by 20–30%. Applied to the EU’s €2 trillion annual procurement market, that translates to hundreds of billions of euros in lost value each year.

Fragmentation also suppresses innovation. When small suppliers can’t access opportunities easily, larger incumbents dominate. Fewer new ideas enter the market, and governments lose out on creative solutions that SMEs could deliver.

Policy intent vs. market reality

The EU’s procurement framework was designed to build a single market, one where suppliers could compete seamlessly across borders.

In practice, data fragmentation, language barriers, and inconsistent publication standards prevent that vision from being realised.

The European Court of Auditors describes the system as “transparent but not accessible,” a paradox that continues to limit Europe’s competitiveness.

Efficiency is possible, but only with integration.

That’s where policy and technology now begin to converge.

Fixing the fragmentation: What the EU is doing and what’s missing?

Europe recognises the problem. Policymakers, procurement experts, and industry bodies all agree that fragmented tender systems are unsustainable. Several initiatives are already under way to unify procurement data and simplify supplier access, but progress is uneven.

The EU public procurement data space (PPDS)

The Public Procurement Data Space (PPDS) is one of the European Commission’s flagship digital initiatives. Its goal is simple: to create a single, interconnected space where data from all national and regional portals can be shared, analysed, and reused.

If fully implemented, PPDS could:

• Link thousands of disconnected systems
• Allow suppliers to search tenders across borders from one interface
• Enable real-time monitoring of competition and value for policymakers

It’s an ambitious step, but still early in execution.

Why progress is slow?

Technical, legal, and financial hurdles remain.

Member States use different data structures, and not all systems are machine-readable. Some lack APIs entirely.

Funding and interoperability requirements also slow adoption, leaving the project dependent on voluntary cooperation between countries.

The Open Contracting Partnership reports that even where open data standards are adopted, implementation is inconsistent.

Until these differences are resolved, true integration will remain out of reach.

What still needs to happen?

To rebuild access and competition, Europe needs:

• Unified data standards so tenders are searchable across borders
• Multilingual interfaces for SMEs in smaller markets
• Supplier-first design, ensuring usability matches transparency

Integration isn’t about replacing national systems, it’s about connecting them.

If done right, it could unlock one of the EU’s biggest untapped growth opportunities: a truly single procurement market.

Beyond portals: A smarter future for European procurement

Europe doesn’t need more portals. It needs connection, a procurement ecosystem where data, access, and competition work together.

A smarter future isn’t about replacing what exists; it’s about making the system work as one.

One market, one access point

Imagine a single entry point where suppliers, from microbusinesses to multinationals, can view all public tenders across the EU in their language, with real-time updates and relevance scoring.

That’s the vision behind initiatives like PPDS and digital-first procurement strategies across Member States.

It’s not science fiction; it’s integration. And it could unlock billions in efficiency gains while boosting participation from SMEs and innovative startups.

The real opportunity

Fixing fragmentation isn’t just an IT project, it’s an economic multiplier.

A truly unified tender landscape would:

• Increase SME participation and competition
• Lower procurement costs for governments
• Improve trust and transparency for citizens

In short, it would help Europe buy better and grow faster.

A call for collaboration

Governments, policymakers, and technology providers share responsibility for this change.

Each has a piece of the solution: policy alignment, data standardisation, and smarter user experience.

Collaboration, not another standalone portal, is what will make procurement finally deliver on its promise of openness and opportunity.

Because a transparent market only works when everyone can see it.