Brussels, 08/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission, which is still working on a mechanism to restrict access to European public contracts in some cases, in order to ensure greater reciprocity with trading partners, on Tuesday 7 June, launched a stakeholder consultation exercise, which will run until 2 August, on the new EU policy on access to public contracts. The consultation paper sets out a number of options, ranging from keeping in place the rules as they stand at present to a legislative initiative. In one of the approaches considered, the Commission will carry out investigations and impose restrictive measures for goods and services from third countries when EU goods, services and companies are not afforded appropriate access to the public procurement markets of these countries. These restrictive measures could consist of banning access to a specific area of the EU public contracts market or to specific contracts, or, indeed, could involve financial penalties, the questionnaire says. Commissioners Karel De Gucht (Trade) and Michel Barnier (Internal Market) have called for greater reciprocity in the award of public contracts in the EU and throughout the rest of the world. According to Commission figures, public contracts open in the EU to other WTO signatory countries to the agreement on public procurement (GPA) are worth €312 billion, compared with €34 billion in the United States and €22 billion in Japan. (E.H./transl.rt)