Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) amending Regulation (EC) No 1628/96 relating to aid for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (98/C 100/09) COM(98) 18 final - 98/0023(CNS)

(Submitted by the Commission on 23 January 1998)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 235 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,

Whereas Council Regulation (EC) No 1628/96 (1) as amended by Regulation (EC) No 2240/97 (2) deals with economic development, the restoration of civil society and cooperation between the Republics of former Yugoslavia as well as with repair work and the renovation of infrastructure while pressing ahead with political and economic reforms;

Whereas, given the exceptional circumstances in the countries covered by this Regulation, the Commission has been invited to propose very substantial measures to simplify procedures and to accelerate implementation of projects within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 1628/96 in order to deliver more efficiently the assistance of the European Community to this region;

Whereas Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 1628/96 provides for the implementation of expenditure in accordance with the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities;

Whereas Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1628/96 provides that service contracts not exceeding ECU 200 000 can be awarded by private treaty, and it is considered that the circumstances in the region justify specific provisions for the award of technical assistance contracts not exeeding ECU 400 000 by private treaty, especially for technical support and monitoring of projects;

Whereas, according to Article 116 of the Financial Regulation, works and supply contracts may be awarded by geographically or otherwise restricted tendering procedures in certain exceptional situations and subject to certain conditions; whereas in light of the exceptionally difficult situation prevailing in the countries covered by this Regulation, the conditions triggering recourse to restricted tendering procedures are fulfilled;

Whereas most of the infrastructure projects by their very nature have a strong local component justifying, for reasons of speed and efficiency, award procedures limited to one of the beneficiary countries;

Whereas the particular characteristics of the local market may not allow recourse to this procedure or if this procedure does not lead to the award of a contract, a private treaty with international contractors could be justified;

Whereas projects facilitating the return of refugees should benefit from restricted tendering procedures in order to shorten the delays to a strict minimum;

Whereas Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 1628/96 provides that financing decisions exceeding ECU 2 million need approval of the Committee provided for in Article 12;

Whereas this amount has to be increased to ECU 5 million in order to increase expediency;

Whereas Article 12(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1628/96 provides specific rules for the decision making process within the Committee;

Whereas the procedures applying to this Committee should be amended in order to streamline procedures;

Whereas in order to increase the flexibility of Community assistance, the Commission should also be enabled to contribute to programmes and cooperation schemes forwarded by municipalities or regional bodies, in consultation with the Central Government,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 1628/96, is amended as follows:

(a) The following paragraphs shall be added to Article 9:

'When service contracts take the form of technical assistance they may be awarded by private treaty for operations not exceeding ECU 400 000, especially to prepare, monitor or evaluate Community aid.

Works and supply contracts not exceeding ECU 3 million may be awarded by procedures limited to one of the beneficiary countries covered by this Regulation. Where the particular characteristics of the local market do not allow recourse to this procedure or where this procedure does not lead to the award of a contract, works and supply contracts not exceeding ECU 3 million may be, in exceptional cirumstances, awarded by private treaty to natural or legal persons from the Member States or exceptionally from the States benefiting from the PHARE programme under the conditions specified in this Article.

With respect to projects facilitating the return of refugees works and supply contracts exceeding ECU 3 million and not exceeding ECU 10 million shall be awarded by open tendering procedure or following restricted invitations to tender. The procedures and thresholds established by Article 10(1) and (2) are applicable.`

(b) Article 10(1) is replaced by the following:

'Financing decisions exceeding ECU 5 million shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 12(2). The Committee provided for in Article 12 shall be informed of operations involving financing of less than ECU 5 million.`

(c) The following paragraph shall be added to Article 10 as paragraph 3:

'3. The Commission may decide to contribute to programmes and cooperation schemes as referred to in Article 4 forwarded by municipalities or regional bodies, in consultation with the central government. The procedures and thresholds established by Article 10(1) and (2) are applicable`.

(d) Article 12(3) is replaced by the following paragraph:

'3. The Commission shall adopt decisions which shall apply immediately. However, if these decisions are not in accordance with the opinion of the committee, they shall be communicated by the Commission to the Council forthwith. In that event the Commission shall defer application of the measures which it has decided for a period of six weeks.

The Council, acting by a qualified majority, may take a different decision within the time limit referred to in the first subparagraph`.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

It shall apply until 31 December 1999.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

(1) OJ L 204, 14.8.1996, p. 1.

(2) OJ L 307, 12.11.1997, p. 1.