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Background: the European Blockchain Partnership
The European Blockchain Partnership is composed of all EU Member States, Norway and Liechtenstein. It was created in April 2018 with the aim of cooperating to establish the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI). This infrastructure is a set of public services run on blockchain and the infrastructure components required to run these services. EBSI will support the delivery of cross-border digital public services. It should be fully implemented in 2022.
Features of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure
EBSI will be a public-permissioned blockchain controlled by governmental bodies. Member States will operate EBSI nodes at national level. The same infrastructure is expected to be re-used in different use cases. EBSI will be:
-decentralised,
-scalable,
-open (preferably open-source work),
-sustainable (especially in terms of energy efficiency),
-interoperable (based on open standards and open technical specifications).
Pre-Commercial Procurement on blockchain: what does this mean?
The European Commission will launch a tender to buy R&D services that can support the development of EBSI. This means that the Commission will not buy commercially-ready solutions.
The objective is to find innovative solutions and develop new standards in the blockchain area.
The European Commission, jointly with the Blockchain Partnership, will define the requirements and select a few suppliers depending on its needs. Tenderers can apply as individual suppliers or consortia.
Three phases compose the procurement: 1) solution design, 2) prototype development, 3) original development and testing of limited volume of 1st test products/services. The Commission tests the solutions and, after each phase, determines which suppliers can access the following phase.
Once the pre-commercial procurement is completed, another procurement on innovative solutions (commercial procurement) will be launched. The aim of this second procurement is to deploy commercial volumes of end products and widely diffuse newly-developed solutions.
Examples of use cases
Use cases for EBSI are identified and selected each year by Member States and the European Commission. In 2019, the following use cases were selected:
-notarisation of documents for auditing purposes
-EU self-sovereign identity framework
-certification of diplomas
-trusted data sharing
A new set of use cases will be selected by the European Blockchain Partnership this year.
Ongoing consultation
Before the official launch of the pre-commercial procurement (Q3 2020), the Commission starts an open market consultation in order to gather views on the project. The consultation will consist of a questionnaire, a vendor event, and another webinar (see below for the dates). The outcome of the consultation will feed the tender specifications.
Budget
No estimated EU budget for the procurement was unveiled at this stage. In 2019, 4 million euros have been invested into the use cases. In 2020, EBSI will become a CEF building block.
Next steps:
From 17 January to 3 March 2020: Open Market Questionnaire (only answer applicable questions).
11 March 2020: Vendor event in Brussels.
Beginning Q3 2020: publication of the tender (pre-commercial procurement), tenderers have two months to submit their offer.
For any questions on this issue, do not hesitate to contact Camille Dornier: camille.dornier@eurosmart.com |
