A decade after the adoption of Directive 2014/24/EU, innovation-oriented procurement remains the exception rather than the rule – even though EU public procurement represents roughly 14 percent of EU gross domestic product and is a powerful lever to accelerate green, digital and security transitions. The current framework offers already flexible procedures and measures. Yet in practice, buyers often default to open or restricted procedures, use price only rewards, limit variants, and avoid early engagement for fear of challenges.

Public procurement of innovation in the European Union is not simply underperforming and fragmented – it is structurally incapable of delivering on its strategic potential. Despite decades of political declarations, the share of innovative procurement remains at a marginal rate of total public spending. This is not a case of market failure, but rather a failure of regulation.

The consequences are severe: Europe is voluntarily surrendering first-mover advantages in critical technologies to competitors who have designed their public purchasing systems precisely to create and scale breakthroughs rather than to prevent errors.