WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3041/97 by Amedeo AMADEO to the Commission. Phare programme
Date: 1997-10-01
Institutions: AMADEO, European Parliament
Subjects: Central and Eastern European countries, EU financing, EU programme, contract, invitation to tender, operating cost, services contract, supplies contract, technical cooperation, works contract

C 117/134

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

16. 4. 98

for  services  (technical  assistance),  supplies  or  works.  The  awarding  of  service  contracts  is  governed  by
Article 188  of  the  Financial  Regulation  and  Article  7  of  the  Phare  Regulation.  The  Financial  Regulation
stipulates that these contracts are to be awarded (cid:145)after restricted invitations to tender(cid:146). Article 7 of the Phare
Regulation stipulates that in the case of assistance exceeding ECU 50 000 participation in invitations to tender
and contracts shall be open (cid:145)on equal terms(cid:146) to all natural and legal persons of the Member States.

Is it true that the Commission has decided that service contracts exceeding ECU 50 000 should be subject to
restricted  invitations  to  tender  with  the  result  that  access  (cid:145)on  equal  terms(cid:146)  for  each  one  has  not  always  been
guaranteed?

(98/C 117/181)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3041/97

by Amedeo Amadeo (NI) to the Commission

(1 October 1997)

Subject: PHARE programme

In  its  report  on  the  implementation  of  the  Phare  programme,  the  Court  of  Auditors  examines  the  lists  of
companies providing services in 1993 and 1994 and reveals that companies from certain PHARE countries were
chosen  from  the  lists  more  often  than  companies  from  other  countries.  In  some  PHARE  countries  the
requirement  for  (cid:145)reasonable  geographical  balance(cid:146)  is  particularly  notable,  the  Court  states.  For  example,
companies with offices in Poland and Hungary are by far the most frequently consulted. The frequency with
which companies are chosen from the restricted lists also indicates imbalances: a small group of 24 companies
(representing approximately 3% of the total number of companies consulted) were selected between 10 and 31
times more often than the others.

Will the Commission explain the reasons for this lack of transparency and say what action it intends to take?

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-3039/97, E-3040/97 and E-3041/97
given by Mr Van den Broek on behalf of the Commission

(11 November 1997)

In his questions the Honourable Member picks up some of the statements and criticisms made by the Court of
Auditors in its special report on the Decentralised Implementation System (DIS) for the PHARE programme, in
particular the working of programme management units (PMUs), the procedure for placing service contracts and
balance in the selection of tenderers.

The Commission repeats: in connection with that report it gave a full answer to the Court’s remarks and did so in
more detail than is possible in connection with these questions. The Commission wishes to point out again that it
observed the relevant procedures and rules in a context in which it had at once to seek as far as possible to attain
the  objectives  (which  are  sometimes  hard  to  reconcile)  of  effectiveness,  giving  responsibility  to  the  partner
country, competition and openness in the placing of contracts. Here it must be borne in mind that the service
contracts examined by the Court of Auditors (a 1993-94 sample) were predominantly in the field of technical
assistance for a unique process of transition to a democratic and market-economy model.

As the programme has advanced beyond the stage of early emergencies, and with growing experience in the
partner countries’ official departments and the Commission, the fields identified as unsatisfactory by the report
have  been,  or  are  on  the  point  of  being,  addressed  by  the  Commission.  The  chief  decisions  reached  and
corrections initiated relate to the following:

›  measures to implement Article 118 (revised) of the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977, applicable to
the general budget of the European Communities; (1) in addition to publication in the Official Journal as
required, PHARE service contracts are also advertised on the Internet and all expressions of interest are now
subject to prequalification (the procedure was introduced in mid-1996);