WRITTEN QUESTION E-0927/04 by Claude Turmes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Practice of prototypes at Eur-OP.
Date: 2004-03-26
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Publications Office of the European Union, award of contract, contract, financial regulation, information system, information technology, information technology applications, invitation to tender, public contract

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An action plan will follow which will develop this policy that is based on evaluation and risk assessment of
the work place. A pilot exercise was carried out in 2002 and analysis of results indicates the need to focus
on ergonomic issues.

The Commission keeps a list of occupational accidents which result in a worker being unfit for work for
more, as well as for less, than three working days. For the years 2001-2003 there were respectively 93,
142 and 144 recorded accidents at work in the Commission in Brussels and 22, 29 and 34 in
Luxembourg.

(1) Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the

safety and health of workers at work.

(2004/C 84 E/1013)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0927/04

by Claude Turmes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(26 March 2004)

Subject: Practice of ‘prototypes’ at Eur-OP

the Office for Official Publications of

Throughout the Eurostat affair the Commission has repeatedly stated that the offending activities dated
from earlier mandates. However, a certain practice the result of which is, at best, that competition is
artificially limited or, at worst, that it is the Publications Office which awards the contracts is still current
the
at
reputation of which also happens to have been sullied by the Eurostat affair. It is the ‘prototype’ practice,
whereby, in the context of a large-scale project with a major IT component, a firm is chosen to design a
prototype which lays down the choice of technology, thus restricting the number of firms able to respond
to the call for tender.

the European Communities (Eur-OP)

in Luxembourg,

This raises many questions:

1.

Is this practice in line with the financial regulation and the directives on public contracts?

2. Who chooses the firm that designs the prototype and what procedures are used?

3. Can the Commission state the number and scale of the projects that have been subject to this practice

since 1999?

4. Can the Commission say which firms and technologies were involved?

5. Can the Commission say whether these firms include companies that already have long-term contracts

with Eur-OP?

6. Does the Commission intend to refer this practice to OLAF for investigation?

Answer given by Ms Reding on behalf of the Commission

(30 April 2004)

The Commission can provide the following answers to the Honourable Member’s questions:

1. and 2. The development of prototypes is an approach used in the building of certain IT applications in

order to analyse:

(cid:1) the feasibility of the organisational solutions to be applied;

(cid:1) the suitability of a technical solution, in particular in the case of new technologies not yet used by

the institutions;

(cid:1) the acceptability of the IT application recommended by the users.

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Contracts awarded by the Publications Office within this framework must comply with the Financial
Regulation and all the rules governing public procurement.

3. and 4.

Five prototypes have been produced as part of IT developments carried out by the Office since

1999:

A. SEI-JOS

Subject: Development of the computerised publishing system for the Supplement to the Official
Journal of the European Union.

Developing company: European Dynamics.

Contract arrangements: Specific contract (1515) concluded after an invitation to tender published
in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Duration of contract: 1.3.1998-28.2.2005.

Amount of contract: EUR 987 000. Cost of prototype: EUR 39 150.

IT tools used: Oracle technology, in particular the database system and the workflow tool.

Performance: The specific contract concluded after the invitation to tender provided for the
development of a prototype. The contract stipulated that it would be terminated if the prototype
was not accepted. The prototype was found to be acceptable and the system was developed and
commissioned.

B.

SEI-Suiprod

Subject: Development of a production monitoring tool to be used in connection with work such
as the Official Journal of the European Union, other publications and multimedia productions.

Developing company: Trasys.

Contract arrangements: Framework contract for IT services (5011, lot E6) concluded after an
invitation to tender published in the Official Journal of the European Union …

Duration of contract: 15.8.1997-14.8.2002.

Amount of contract: EUR 3 632 025. Cost of prototype: EUR 38 250.

IT tools used: Expeditor, Lotus Notes and TeamWare.

Performance: After the evaluation of the software packages available on the market, the tools
listed at 2.6 were selected. Prototypes were developed with these tools. On the basis of the results
the
the Office opted for Expeditor
of
application.

the prototypes produced,

for the development of

C.

PLAN-JO

Subject: System for monitoring production of the Official Journal of the European Union.

Developing company: TRW ISCS.

Contract arrangements: Specific contract (2068) concluded after an invitation to tender published
in the Official Journal of the European Union for the principal development and direct treaty for
the evaluation of Livelink …

Duration of contract: 31.7.2002-30.7.2007.

Cost of the evaluation: EUR 13 530.

IT tools used: Livelink.

Performance: The Office had an evaluation made of the Livelink software. An invitation to tender
was then published in the Official Journal of the European Union for the PLAN-JO project.

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D. EU-Bookshop

Subject: EU-Bookshop on-line documentary management and dissemination system.
Developing company: Intrasoft (principal development) and EverTeam (prototype and technical
assistance).
Contract arrangements: Specific contract (6106) concluded after an invitation to tender published
in the Official Journal of the European Union for the principal development and direct treaty for
the production of the Everteam prototype …
Duration of contract: 12.5.2003-11.5.2007. Duration of the direct treaty: 17.6.2002-17.8.2002.
Cost of prototype: EUR 32 180.
IT tools used: EverSuite.
Performance: The Office had a prototype produced on the basis of the EverSuite software
package. An invitation to tender was then published in the Official Journal of the European Union
for the EU-Bookshop project.

E.

EUR-Lex/Celex
Subject: Merger of the EUR-Lex and Celex databases.
Developing companies: Trasys/Sword, and EverTeam as subcontractor.
Contract arrangements: Contracts (6203 and 6204) concluded on the basis of the IT Directorate
framework contract (DI/02432).
Duration of
31.12.2004.
Cost: contract 6203: EUR 387 793; contract 6204: EUR 385 410.
IT tools used: EverSuite.
Performance: This project is currently in the second of the three planned stages of development.
The purpose of the first stage was to identify the functions of the new application.

the contracts: contract 6203: 26.5.2003-31.12.2003; contract 6204: 2.3.2004-

5. A list of the contracts with the companies mentioned, other than those referred to in the reply to

question 4 is being sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat.

6.

from the Commissioner responsible for education and culture,

In response to the request
the
Publications Office had an audit carried out into its contracts over the period 1999 to July 2003. The
conclusions of this audit were set out in a report produced in November 2003 which found no
irregularity. A copy of the final report was sent in November 2003 to the members of the Office’s
Management Committee, which includes the Secretary-General of Parliament, and to the European
Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).

The Commission can inform the Honourable Member that OLAF is currently checking whether any
irregularities occurred in the award of public contracts by the Office.

(2004/C 84 E/1014)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0931/04

by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission

(26 March 2004)

Subject: Standards on portable liquid oxygen devices

In its answer of 15 February 2002 to my question E-3462/01 (1), the Commission stated that standards for
portable liquid oxygen devices, including connectors, were being developed by the European Committee
on Standardisation (CEN), following a mandate given by the Commission on the basis of Directive 93/42/
EEC (2). The adoption of these standards was expected for the second half of 2003.