GPA/123/Add.7  
 
3 July 2017 
(17-3569) Page: 1/5 
Committee on Government Procurement  Original: English  
 
 
STATISTICS FOR 2013  REPORTED UNDER  
ARTICLE XIX:5 OF THE  AGREEMENT (1994)  
REPORT BY THE EUROPE AN UNION1 
Addendum  
The following communication, dated 28 June 2017 , is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of the European Union.  
 
_______________  
 
The EU is pleased to submit to the GPA Committee its statistical reports for the year 2013.  
 
The EU considers that statistical reports are a crucial element of GPA notification policy and of the 
monitoring of the Agreement. The EU wishes to stresses that i t takes its statistical obligations very 
seriously and that its Member States have made an important effort to report above -thresholds 
procurement for all administrative levels as well as for Annex 3 entities (Utilities) . 
 
The EU invites all Parties to do the same and not to limit themselves to report overall procurement 
at central level, but to focus their efforts to report in detail the situation of above -threshold 
procurement  for all administrative levels covered by the GPA , in particular at local and 
regional level, where an important part of procurement is taking place.  
 
1  OUTLINE OF THE REPOR TS 
EU procurement : Key figures in billion euros  2011  2012  2013  
Value of contracts covered by GPA  237.17  286.35  303.87  
Value of contracts above thresholds  335.37  365.58  398.00  
Value of contracts awarded under Article XV GPA  7.26 12.28  12.57  
Total expenditures on goods and services  2405.88  2422.52  2444.46  
 
1.1  Contracts covered by GPA  
The 2013 Report presents the value of contracts procured in the EU 28. Croatia is included in the 
report for the first time, since it joined the EU in July 2013. In 2013, the total value contracted by 
the 28 Member States of the EU and covered by GPA was EUR 302 billion. In addition the EU 
institutions (European Council and European Com mission) contracted EUR 1.9 billion covered by 
GPA. In total, the contract value covered by GPA in 2013 was EUR 303.9 billion (EUR 303.7 billion 
excluding Croatia).  
 
The latter value is 6% higher than the total of EUR 286.35 billion of the EU  27 in 2012 (E U 
Member States and institutions combined).  
 
In 2013, EU supplies, works and services covered by GPA were contracted in roughly equal parts: 
EUR 96.4, 105.4 and 102 billion.  
 
 
                                                
1 In English only.  GPA/123/Add.7  
 
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  The greatest value of EU contracts covered by GPA in 2013 was procured by Annex 2 entities 
consisting of bodies governed by public law, local authorities and regional authorities: EUR 184.4 
billion. In 2013, central government entities (European Union entities and central government 
authorities of EU Member States) contracted EUR 77.1  billion covered by GPA and entities 
operating utilities in the covered sectors EUR 42.4 billion.  
 
The three largest EU expenditure categories covered by GPA in 2013 were:  
 
 Construc tion services (EUR 89.2 billion - value of construction services contracts that are 
indicated with relevant EU code CPV 45);  
 Medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (EUR 22 billion, mostly 
pharmaceuticals purchased by hospitals);  
 Fuel (EUR 20.3 billion, this is excluding fuel and gas purchased by electricity  and gas 
utilities which are not covered by GPA).  
1.2  Contracts awarded under Article XV (limited tendering)  
The value of limited tendering contracts covered by GPA (A rticle XV cases of the GPA 1994 
Agreement) was EUR 12.6 billion in 2013 which is 4% of the to tal contract value of 
EUR 303.9  billion covered by GPA.  
 
1.3  Contracts above thresholds  
The total above thresholds procurement market in the EU was EUR 398 billion in 2013. This is 
greater than the value of contracts covered by GPA. One reason is that not all entities are covered 
by GPA. In particular, utilities in the fields of gas, railway services, coal, oil and gas exploration 
and extraction and postal services are not covered by GPA. Also, Annex 1 and 2 entities in the 
fields of water, energy, transport an d postal services are not covered by GPA unless they are 
covered in the EU Annex 3. Lastly, in terms of coverage of EU institutions, only some of them are 
covered by the GPA. In total, the value contracted by entities not covered by GP A was 
EUR 40.2 billion in 2013.  
 
Another reason is that not all types of contracts are covered by GPA (EUR 53.9 billion). In 
particular the following types of contracts are not covered by this report:  
 
 Service contracts listed in Annex II .B of EU Public Procurement Directive (such as for 
example hotel and accommodation services);  
 Defence and security (defence material and training, ICT, R&D, investigation and 
security services) by Annex 1 authorities in the field of defence and security;  
 Fuel purchases by electricity companies  and water purchases by water companies.  
1.4  Estimated total procurement  
The statistical report assesses the total procurement market by calculating the total expenditures 
on goods and services. Including below thresholds procurements, the procurement market i n 2013 
is estimated to be EUR 2,4 44 billion2, an increase of 0.9% compared to the EUR 2,423 billion of 
2012. These figures are based on Eurostat data on expenditures on certain categories of purchases 
and are not exactly comparable to procurements. For exa mple, these expenditures include below 
thresholds direct purchases (i.e. without a formal procurement).  
 
                                                
2 Due to the difficulties to get a reliable update for the 201 3 data on utilities procurement, the report 
uses the data for utilities procurement from 2011. This is the reason why the total value of procurement in the 
public procurement indicators 2013 communicated by the Commission on its website does not include utilities  
and is significantly different from the estimates in this report . GPA/123/Add.7  
 
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  2  METHODOLOGICAL ISSUE S 
The 2013 statistical report introduces some methodological changes:  
 
 The addition of Croatia, for which contracts were included as from 1 July 2013;  
 Contracts with multiple CPVs, as long as they include CPV 45, are systematically 
classified as works contracts;  
 In order to better assess the contracts with missing values in TED, the report uses the 
same imputation method systematical ly for the vast majority of MS. The value of those 
imputations was based on the median;   
 The Eurostat national accounts data of 2013 are no longer available in both the ESA95 
classification and the ESA2010 classification. Only data according to the ESA2010  
classification can be used. This can causes some break in the data year on year for some 
countries in the table reporting the estimated total procurement.  
The EU statistical report contains summary tables consolidating the statistical reports of each of i ts 
28 Member States. Along with them, the EU has also made an important effort to report 
extensively on the EU institutions contracts. The procurement of EU institutions is provided in a 
specific report.  
 
The EU statistical report for 2013 is structured as  follows:  
 
a. Estimated value of above - and below -thresholds procurement  
As with the previous reports, the EU estimates this expenditure on the basis of the national 
accounts of its Member States, which are harmonised through the ESA2010 system that 
transposes the System of National Accounts (SNA) adopted by the United Nations Statistical 
Commission, and through input -output tables for utilities (Annex 3). The former is the sum of 
gross fixed capital formation, intermediate consumption and a part of s ocial transfers in kind. Data 
is broken down by level of government (central government, State government, local government 
and social security funds). Purchases of utilities are derived from input -output tables and have 
been crosschecked by estimating the ir procurement through financial accounts (through the sum 
of fixed capital investment cash flows and costs of purchases of services and goods in the profit -
and-loss account).  
 
The EU believes that this is the most reliable method to estimate the volume of  public procurement 
below the thresholds as each EU Member State has implemented different types of legislation for 
its below -threshold procurement (national publication obligations apply at different thresholds in 
each Member States). This is the method a lso used within the EU to estimate the public 
expenditure falling outside of the scope of the EU Directives.  
 
b. Estimated value of procurement registered in TED  
Based on the number and the value of calls for tenders published in the Official Journal, the EU 
estimates the values of the public procurement published in TED, which can be seen as a proxy for 
the above -thresholds procurement.  
 
c. Detailed breakdown by Annexes  
The EU has been putting considerable effort into providing a detailed reporting for all 
administrative levels and for above -thresholds procurement.  
 GPA/123/Add.7  
 
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  Breakdowns have been based on two sources: data provided by the EU member States and/or the 
Official Journal.  
 
 Detailed breakdown for Annex 1  
  As to Member States ' central government authorities cove red by GPA – total 
value of contracts for each contracting authority of Annex 1 broken down by type 
of contract (services, works, supplies), type of purchase (by CPV – cf. infra) and 
Article XV cases (only for entities covered by GPA) . 
  As to the EU instit utions, total value of contracts broken down by type of contract 
(services, works, supplies) and type of purchase (by CPV – cf. infra) . 
 Detailed breakdown for Annex 2  – total value of contracts for regional and local 
authorities and bodies governed by public law broken down by type of contract 
(services, works, supplies), type of purchase (by CPV – cf. infra) and Art icle XV 
cases.  
 Detailed breakdown for Annex 3  – total value of contracts for utilities covered by 
the GPA (airports, ports, urban transport, electricity and water) broken down by type 
of contract (services, works, supplies), type of purchase (by CPV – cf. infra), the 
same statistics for utilities not covered  by GPA (railways, gas and other entities) and 
Article XV cases (except for railways, gas and other entities).  
Values  
All prices are given in Euros, excluding VAT. Any comparison between the EU public procurement 
market and the market of any other Parties requires to be done on a similar statistical basis.  
 
Listing of contracts by CPV  
The EU has opted to present its statistical reports on the basis of the CPV, the Common 
Procurement Vocabulary. The CPV provides a much more refined way to identify contracts that are 
covered by the GPA or not, avoiding therefore the hassle of complex correspondences between 
classifications.  
 
The statistical reports use the CPV 2008, which has been laid down under Regulation 2195/2002 
as amended by Regulation 213/2008. This Reg ulation contains in its Annexes detailed tables of 
correspondence with the provisional central products classification (CPC), the NACE and the 
Combined Nomenclature.  
 
Supplier and service provider nationality  
The EU has not yet found a consistent method to  trace contracts awarded to companies from other 
GPA Parties as the existing data covers only direct cross -border procurement and there were a 
large number of contracts awarded to suppliers that are subsidiaries of foreign companies or 
agents for foreign s uppliers. Therefore, any picture these statistics might give will not reflect the 
reality.  
 
Moreover, the EU believes that it is extremely difficult to determine the real beneficiary of a 
specific transaction.  
 
The EU remains ready to engage in in -depth discussions to determine how to better measure 
market penetration by companies from countries that are Parties to the Agreement.  
 
Article XIX (d)  
The EU has not yet found a consistent method to measure this heading. It is ready to discuss with 
other Partie s on how to measure this heading.  
 
_______________  GPA/123/Add.7  
 
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  The Euro pean Union's statistics for 2013  are available at the following links:  
 
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/ 2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_00_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_01_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_02_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_03_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_04_e.xlsx  
https://members. wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_05_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_06_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_07_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_ 08_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_09_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_10_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_11_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_12_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/ EEC/17_2972_13_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_14_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_15_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_16_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_17_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachmen ts/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_18_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_19_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_20_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_21_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_22_e.xlsx  
https://members. wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_23_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_24_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_25_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_ 26_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_27_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_28_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_29_e.xlsx  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2017/GPA/EEC/17_2972_30_e.xlsx  
 
 
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