COMMON POSITION (EC) No 60/2002

adopted by the Council on 7 June 2002

with a view to the adoption of a Regulation (EC) No .../2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of ... on the Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

(2002/C 281 E/01)

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 47(2) and Articles 55 and 95 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal by the Commission(1),

Having regard to the Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee(2),

Having regard to the Opinion of the Committee of the Regions(3),

Acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251 of the Treaty(4),

Whereas:

(1) The use of different classifications is detrimental to the openness and transparency of public procurement in Europe. Its impact on the quality of notices and the time needed to publish them is a de facto restriction on the access of economic operators to public contracts.

(2) In its Recommendation 96/527/EC(5) the Commission invited contracting entities and authorities to use the Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV), developed on the basis of certain existing classifications with a view to gearing them more closely to the particular features of the public procurement sector, when describing the subjects of their contracts.

(3) There is a need to standardise, by means of a single classification system for public procurement, the references used by the contracting authorities and entities to describe the subject of contracts.

(4) The Member States need to have a single reference system which uses the same description of goods in the official languages of the Community and the same corresponding alphanumeric code, thus making it possible to overcome the language barriers at Community level.

(5) A revised version of the CPV therefore needs to be adopted under this Regulation as a single classification system for public procurement, the implementation of which is covered by the Directives on the coordination of procedures for the award of public contracts.

(6) Illustrative tables must also be drawn up showing the correspondence between the CPV and the Statistical Classification of Products by Activity in the EEC (CPA), the Provisional Central Product Classification (CPC Prov.) of the United Nations, the General Industrial Classification of Economic Activities within the European Communities (NACE Rev. 1) and the Combined Nomenclature (CN).

(7) The structure and codes of the CPV may need to be adapted or amended, in the light of developments in the markets and users' needs. A suitable revision procedure must therefore be established.

(8) The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission(6).

(9) Since the objective of the proposed action, namely the drawing up of a classification system for public contracts, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the dimensions and effects of the action, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

(10) A Regulation has been chosen rather than a Directive as the establishment of a classification system for public contracts does not require implementation by the Member States.

(11) With a view to familiarising users with a unified classification system that will eventually be compulsory, the implementation of this CPV Regulation should be preceded by a period of adjustment,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

1. A single classification system applicable to public procurement, known as the "Common Procurement Vocabulary" or "CPV" is hereby established.

2. The text of the CPV is set out in Annex I.

3. The illustrative tables showing the correspondence between the CPV and the Statistical Classification of Products by Activity in the EEC (CPA), the Provisional Central Product Classification (CPC Prov.) of the United Nations, the General Industrial Classification of Economic Activities within the European Communities (NACE Rev. 1) and the Combined Nomenclature (CN) are set out in Annexes II, III, IV and V respectively.

Article 2

The measures necessary for the revision of the CPV shall be adopted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 3(2).

Article 3

1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Advisory Committee for Public Contracts set up by Article 1 of Council Decision 71/306/EEC(7) (hereinafter referred to as "the Committee").

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 3 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof.

3. The Committee shall adopt its rules of procedure.

Article 4

This Regulation shall enter into force on ...(8).

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

Done at ...

For the European Parliament

The President

For the Council

The President

(1) OJ C 25 E, 29.1.2002, p. 1.

(2) OJ C 48, 21.2.2002, p. 9.

(3) Opinion delivered on 14 March 2002 (not yet published in the Official Journal).

(4) Opinion of the European Parliament of 13 March 2002 (not yet published in the Official Journal), Council Common Position of 7 June 2002 and European Parliament Decision of ... (not yet published in the Official Journal).

(5) OJ L 222, 3.9.1996, p. 10.

(6) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.

(7) OJ L 185, 16.8.1971, p. 15. Decision as amended by Decision 77/63/EEC (OJ L 13, 15.1.1977, p. 15).

(8) One year after the date on which it is published in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

ANNEX I

COMMON PROCUREMENT VOCABULARY (CPV)

Structure of the classification system

1. The CPV consists of a main vocabulary and a supplementary vocabulary.

2. The main vocabulary is based on a tree structure comprising codes of up to nine digits associated with a wording that describes the supplies, works or services forming the subject of the contract.

The numerical code consists of 8 digits, subdivided as follows:

- the first two digits identify the divisions;

- the first three digits identify the groups;

- the first four digits identify the classes;

- the first five digits identify the categories.

Each of the last three digits gives a greater degree of precision within each category.

A ninth digit serves to verify the previous digits.

3. The supplementary vocabulary may be used to expand the description of the subject of a contract. The items are made up of an alphanumeric code with a corresponding wording allowing further details to be added regarding the specific nature or destination of the goods to be purchased.

The alphanumeric code is made up of:

- a first level comprising a letter corresponding to a section;

- a second level comprising four digits, the first three of which denote a subdivision and the last one being for verification purposes.

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SUPPLEMENTARY VOCABULARY

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ANNEX II

CORRESPONDENCE TABLE BETWEEN CPV AND CPA 96

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ANNEX III

CORRESPONDENCE TABLE BETWEEN CPV AND CPC prov.

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ANNEX IV

CORRESPONDENCE TABLE BETWEEN CPV AND NACE Rev. 1

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ANNEX V

CORRESPONDENCE TABLE BETWEEN CPV AND CN

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STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

On 3 August 2001, the Commission presented the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on the Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)(1). The proposal was based on article 47, paragraph 2 and articles 55 and 95 of the Treaty.

The European Parliament has given its Opinion on 13 March 2002 and accepted the Commission proposal without amendments(2).

The Economic and Social Committee has given its Opinion on 28 November 2001(3).

The Committee of Regions has given its Opinion on 14 March 2002(4).

II. OBJECTIVE

The Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) is a major step to simplify the technical requirements of procurement procedures, namely the publishing of contract notices. Set out as an annex to the articles of the CPV regulation, the main vocabulary is based on a five-level hierarchical structure, while the supplementary vocabulary has two levels.

The CPV itself was already recommended as a useful system in 1996 and obtained the central place as the search criterion for potential tenderers, however, before 2002 without a proper legal basis. The regulation can therefore now contribute to streamlining public procurement under one heading, that is the CPV, which would replace the other classification systems currently in use such as CPA, NACE, CPC Prov. and CN (Combined Nomenclature) for the public procurement contracts in the Community.

The CPV will contribute to enhanced efficiency, including easier identification of the contents of contracts by the economic operators. This itself is a prerequisite for the objective of removing any unnecessary barrier to competition. Furthermore, automatic translation of the summaries of contract notices will be possible. The revision procedure established in parallel assigns those implementation powers to the Commission, that it needs to keep the vocabulary updated. The Commission will be assisted by the Advisory Committee on Public Contracts. In substance, any changes and updates will be influenced by comments of the users of the system.

III. ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSITION AS SET OUT IN DOC. 8171/02 MAP 16 CODEC 489

The European Parliament did not adopt any amendments to the proposal of the Commission. The Common Position agreed upon by the Council fully endorses the objectives of the proposal, that is to simplify the existing nomenclature and to facilitate the work of both contracting authorities and economic operators. The flexible mechanism integrated to include future modifications has been approved as being entirely appropriate. This way, any possible shortcomings in details, which cannot be excluded from the outset (given the detailed classification of goods on more than 250 pages) will be efficiently accommodated.

With regard to the articles, the Council only integrated some minor modifications, predominantly the standard wording of the article for the comitology procedure, which is a purely editorial point, and a longer time period for transposition of the CPV. The latter modification was justified in order to facilitate even further the application of CPV in the future.

(1) OJ C 25 E, 29.1.2002, p. 1.

(2) Not yet published in the Official Journal.

(3) OJ C 48, 21.2.2002 p. 9.

(4) CDR 391-2001, not yet published in Official Journal.