WRITTEN QUESTION E-3736/00 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Tendering for public services.
Date: 2000-11-30
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EC Directive, award of contract, invitation to tender, underground railway

C 163 E/204

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

6.6.2001

information campaigns undertaken by governments cost between € 0,5-16 million, with the majority
spending between € 1-3 million. The cost of remediation work by the public sector was estimated at
between € 20 million and € 1 billion. Spending by Member States as a whole, including the private sector,
was estimated at between € 1-20 billion.

It
is impossible to make accurate assessments because it would be necessary to separate normal
information technology (IT) budget expenditure, which would have been incurred in any case, from
specific expenditure on the millennium bug. In some cases, the public sector managed to carry out all the
Millenium bug remediation work within existing IT budgets,
in others as much as half came from
additional funding. In many cases, organisations simply brought forward already planned IT investments.
The actual cost to the private sector is even more difficult to estimate, given that many companies did not
choose to disclose this information publicly.

In terms of the cost of actual disruption to economic activity, this is also information which companies
and administrations found very sensitive and thus were not inclined to disclose. As far as the Commission
knows, no Member State has provided estimates of these costs.

(2001/C 163 E/238)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3736/00

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(30 November 2000)

Subject: Tendering for public services

Will the Commission state whether there are any requirements, existing or proposed, that would require
public authorities to put tube (underground or metro) services out to tender?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(18 January 2001)

Where a public authority operates an Underground or Metro public transport network and proposes to
enter into contracts in pursuit of that activity, the authority is obliged to follow the rules of Council
Directive 93/38/EEC of 14 June 1993 co-ordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in
the water, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors (1) ((cid:145)the Utilities Directive(cid:146)). In most cases this
means a tender with a call for competition must be made.

However, if the Honourable Member is referring to contracts for the operation of an Underground service
to be let by a public authority, the situation is somewhat different. In this case the contract award is
governed by the Utilities Directive if the authority is also an operator of a transport network. If the
authority does not also operate a transport network, the award of the contract will be governed by Council
Directive 92/50/EEC of 18 June 1992, on the co-ordination of procedures for the award of public service
contracts (2) ((cid:145)the Services Directive(cid:146)). In both cases the service is a (cid:145)non-priority(cid:146) service (i.e. mentioned in
part B of Annex I and Annex XVI of the Services and Utilities Directives respectively). Pursuant to these
directives, contracts for this type of service are not subject to advertising or most of the other strict
procedural requirements designed to ensure competitive tenders. In relation to this type of service the
Utilities and Services Directives require only that technical specifications should not be discriminatory and
that a contract award notice should be published showing the results of the award procedure.

The Commission recently adopted a proposal for a regulation on (cid:145)action by Member States concerning
public service requirements and the award of public service contracts in passenger transport by rail, road
and inland waterway(cid:146) (3).

This proposal deals with public authorities(cid:146) decisions to pay financial compensation for the operation of
public transport services, or to give operators exclusive rights.

6.6.2001

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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The general rule is that these decisions should take the form of contracts, awarded following competition.
However there are some exceptions, two of which specifically concern metro and light rail services.
Competent authorities could decide to award contracts for these services without competition if: national
or international rail safety standards could not be met in any other way; or any other arrangement would
entail additional costs for maintaining coordination between the operator and the manager of
the
infrastructure, and those costs would not be offset by additional benefits.

Competent authorities deciding not to go to competition would need to make this decision public, along
with the evidence and analysis on which it is based, at least a year beforehand.

The Commission(cid:146)s proposal has been submitted to the Parliament and the Council. It is subject to the
co-decision procedure.

(1) OJ L 199, 9.8.1993.
(2) OJ L 209, 24.7.1992.
(3) COM(2000) 7 final.

(2001/C 163 E/239)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3738/00

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(30 November 2000)

Subject: Horse chestnut disease (Camerarua Ohridella)

1. Will the Commission please state the geographical spread of Horse chestnut disease, together with
the pace of any increase in its spread?

Does the Commission regard it as likely that the disease will spread in northern European countries

2.
in future, and will it please indicate the likely spread if current trends continue?

Does the Commission believe that the spread of this disease warrants an accelerated research

3.
programme into effective eradication measures?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(24 January 2001)

On the basis of information currently available to the Commission, cameraria ohridella is recorded in
Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Austria, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Czech Republic, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey and Yugoslavia.

The pace of spread during recent years seems to be fast.

1.
Based on its current distribution and outbreaks occurring in recent years, it is expected to infest other
countries in Southern Europe rather than in Northern Europe as cameraria ohridella is considered as a
thermophilic xerophile, i.e. loving warm and dry conditions.

2.
The Commission would like to inform the Honourable Member that a Community funded research
project on the sustainable control of cameraria ohridella has started on 1 January 2001. Moreover, the
Commission will remain vigilant with a view to prepare,
if appropriate, Community phytosanitary
measures.