WRITTEN QUESTION E-1648/00

by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(29 May 2000)

Subject: Roadshows by the Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs and compliance with Community competition rules

The Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs organises roadshows to familiarise the public with the Internet. Apparently only Belgacom and no other service providers have been invited to participate.

Does the Commission consider that this is in line with Community competition rules?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(3 July 2000)

It would appear from the question put by the Honourable Member that the Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs asked Belgacom to organise roadshows to familiarise the public with the Internet, without issuing a prior call for competition.

In order to determine the scope of the obligations to be met by the awarding authority under applicable Community law(1), details

are required on the subject of the contract concluded between the Ministry in question and Belgacom. These obligations do in fact differ depending on the value of the contract and the type of service concerned. When the value of the services listed in Annex IA of Directive 92/50/EEC exceeds the thresholds laid down therein, a contract can only be awarded subject to compliance with a set of obligations, which includes the issue of a Europe-wide call for competition prior to the award of the contract. On the other hand, the only provisions which apply in order to carry out the services listed in Annex IB are those relating to the rules to be followed in describing the subject of the contract and the obligation to give notice of the results of the award procedure(2).

Thus, if the subject of the contract concluded with Belgacom were to consist primarily of the provision of advertising services, as listed in Annex IA of the aforementioned Directive, or if, in any case, the value of these services were to exceed that of any related services listed in Annex IB, the awarding authority ought to have issued a prior call for competition in accordance with the rules of the Directive, subject to the application thresholds laid down in Article 7 having been met.

On the other hand, if the main value of the contract was intended for a service covered by Annex IB of the Directive, e.g. a category 24 educational service, the only obligations which would need to be checked for their conformity with applicable Community law would be those concerning compliance with the rules to be applied in describing the subject of the contract in particular, compliance with a specific hierarchy in invoking technical specifications, and a notice of the results of the award procedure sent to the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. When awarding a contract for services covered by Annex IB, it is not therefore compulsory to issue a Europe-wide call for competition.

The Commission will contact the Belgian authorities in order to determine the scope of the subject of the contract in question and check the conformity of the award procedure with the applicable Community rules.

(1) and in particular Council Directive 92/50/EEC of 18 June 1992 relating to the coordination of procedures for the award of public service contracts (OJ L 209, 24.7.1992) as amended by European Parliament and Council Directive 97/52/EC of 13 October 1997 (OJ L 328, 28.11.1997).

(2) See in particular Article 9 of Directive 92/50/EEC, which refers to Articles 14 and 16 only.