WRITTEN QUESTION P-1297/96 by Christian Rovsing (PPE) to the Commission (22 May 1996)

Subject: Commission compliance with the common rules on open tendering

How does the Commission ensure that its departments always follow the common tendering rules in Directives 92/50/EEC ((OJ L 209, 24.7.1992, p. 1. )), 93/36/EEC ((OJ L 199, 9.8.1993, p. 1. )) and 93/37/EEC ((OJ L 199, 9.8.1993, p. 54. )) and the provisions of its financial regulation when it itself calls for tenders for public contracts?

How does it ensure that tender documentation is always available in all EU languages, and how often is only documentation shorter than a certain number of pages translated because of internal procedural rules?

Does the Commission take the view that its rules on the subject also apply to the other EU institutions?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission (26 June 1996)

1. The Commission has developed a set of measures concerning the public contracts it awards.

A new edition (the 6th) of the vade-mecum of the Advisory Committee on Procurement and Contracts (ACPC) was made available to departments in spring 1994. This vade-mecum describes the procedures to be applied by the authorizing officers to public contracts and includes the obligations contained in Directives 92/50/EEC, 93/36/EEC and 93/37/EEC concerning the coordination of procedures for the award of public service, supply and works contracts. Where significant changes are made to the contract procedures, amending notes and addenda to the vade-mecum are distributed to all authorizing officers.

Six training seminars for Commission staff were held in 1994 and 1995. Over 800 officials took part in these activities, which were designed to supplement the distribution of the 6th edition of the ACPC vade-mecum by talks.

As part of the SEM 2000 programme relating to the improvement of financial management, the Commission set out guidelines on the organization and structure of budget units in its departments. These units have the appropriate powers to implement the budget and to award public contracts. Each Director-General has appointed 'ACPC correspondents', who serve as contacts both for the ACPC and for the officials in their Directorate-General who are responsible for procurement procedures.

Standardized contract notices for all Commission departments are being prepared. These new instruments will save time and significantly reduce translation costs.

Whenever a public procurement procedure is launched and where specific problems cannot be resolved within the department, the authorizing officer may consult the departments able to provide the assistance needed, in particular, the Legal Service, the Directorate-General for the Internal Market and the Directorate-General for Budgets which provides the chair and secretariat for the ACPC.

2. With regard to the language arrangements for Commission procurement procedures, contract notices which are limited to 650 words under the Directives concerning the coordination of procedures for the award of public contracts, are published in the eleven official languages in the Official Journal. A tenderer or candidate may submit a tender or application in any official Community language.

The language arrangements for specifications and technical reference files were approved by the Commission at its meeting on 19 December 1984. This decision is annexed to the 6th edition of the ACPC vade-mecum. It is for the authorizing officers to ensure compliance with this Commission decision. Where appropriate, the ACPC can make appropriate comments on the basis of specific files. The Commission does not have statistics showing how often documents exceeding a certain number of pages were not translated.

3. The Commission is not in a position to state whether the rules applicable to its own departments concerning public contracts are also valid for the other Community institutions.

However, it is clear that the relevant rules of the EC Treaty (ban on all forms of discrimination on the basis of nationality, free movement of goods, freedom to provide services) apply to all the institutions. The Financial Regulation ((Financial Regulation of 21.12.1977, last amended by Council Regulation (EC, Euratom, ECSC) No 2335/95 of 18.9.1995 - OJ L 240, 7.10.1995. )) and the Commission Regulation laying down detailed rules for the implementation of certain provisions of the Financial Regulation ((OJ L 315, 16.12.1993. )) apply to the institutions specified in these regulations.

The GATT on government procurement concerns only the Commission and the Council, while Article 56 of the abovementioned Financial Regulation provides that ' each institution shall comply with the same obligations as are imposed upon bodies in the Member States' under the Council Directives concerning the coordination of procedures for the award of public contracts.

Specific decisions adopted by the Commission on public contracts awarded by its own departments are strictly internal in scope, as is the Commission ACPC vade-mecum which, today, enjoys public status in that it is sold through the distribution channels of the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities (OOPEC).