Fewer and lower securities must facilitate access of SMEs to public contracts

Though SMEs make up 99.8 percent of the number of enterprises in Belgium, they are awarded less than half the total value of European public contracts. The legislator, therefore, is constantly looking for ways to increase the access of SMEs to public contracts. A next step in this endeavour is the recently published royal decree of 4 September 2023, which provides, among other things, for a less rigorous regulation of securities in public procurement. Since a security is considered an administrative and financial obstacle for SMEs to participate in public procurement, the Contracting Authority may, from now on, simply opt not to impose a security or to impose a reduced one. The new regulation applies to all public contracts published from 1 November 2023.