Brussels, 20/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - Simplification of rules and procedures, improved access for SMEs, together with improved use of these procedures are at the heart of the project for modernising European laws on public procurement, proposed by Commissioner for the Internal Market Michel Barnier. The programme includes a directive on the concessions, which have so far partly been regulated at a European level.
A fifth of European GDP. Following last week's victory in Geneva on the revision of the multilateral agreement at the WTO on public procurement (see EUROPE 10517) Barnier unveiled on Tuesday 20 December his 12th and final proposal (as part of the Single Market Act, adopted in April 2011) - a raft of measures to modernise Community rules on public procurement. Every year, the public authorities spend almost 90% of EU GDP on goods, services and works projects. In this period of budgetary restriction and economic difficulty in the majority of member states, public procurement policy has to guarantee optimum use of these funds, in an effort to support growth and job creation, explained Barnier to the press. The proposed reform aims to thoroughly modernise existing tools and instruments governing public procurement.
Simplification. The main objective is to simplify rules and procedures and make them more flexible. For this reason the Commission proposes, in particular: the possibility of increased recourse to negotiation, thus enabling the contracting authorities to purchase goods and services which are better tailored to their needs at the best price. It also proposes the extension by 2015, and the generalisation by 2017, of electronic communication in public procurement, since it offers an essential means of simplifying public tendering. In addition, it proposes a drastic cut in the administrative burden, including the number of documents required from economic operators, thereby making life easier. Barnier said that “companies have to complete around 20 documents to participate in a call for tenders. The cost can reach almost a quarter of the market value that they are seeking to obtain. Only the bidder that wins the contract will be obliged to provide certificates in good and due form.” According to the commissioner, the proposed simplification measures are expected to help make savings of around €70 billion in administrative spending in Europe, incurred by those making the orders and companies responding to appeals for tenders.
Improved access for SMEs. The second objective in the proposed reform intends to promote SMEs' access to public procurement, which will be facilitated through measures reducing administrative costs and strong incentives to divide tenders into lots and limit the financial capacity requirements for the submission of a tender. Barnier emphasised that when he arrived at the Commission his objective was to improve the integration of SMEs into the single market, “which they perceived more as an area of constraints than opportunities and an area more for big companies than for themselves. I want to change all that.” He added that “today, 60% of the markets go to SMEs. We want to increase these rates because SMEs represents an immense potential for growth.” Barnier wants to cut down on the disproportionate requirements affecting SMEs.
Better qualitative use. The proposed reform is to facilitate qualitative improvement in the use of public procurement through greater consideration of social and environmental criteria, involving the cost of life cycles - Barnier wants to prioritise purchases that have a lower external transport cost - or the insertion of vulnerable and disadvantaged people - Barnier wants to promote companies that, for example, employ people with disabilities. The European commissioner explained that this was in keeping with the demands made by the chairman of the European Parliament's internal market committee, Malcolm Harbour (ECR, United Kingdom), with a requirement for public procurement to help stimulate growth and improve the living conditions of people in the EU and working for SMEs.
Transparency. The reform also includes improvements to the existing guarantees aimed at combating conflicts of interest, favouritism and corruption in order to better ensure the integrity of procedures, given the financial implications. It also wants member states to appoint a single national authority responsible for monitoring, performing and checking public contracts to ensure that the rules are properly applied in practice.
A simple framework for concessions. The European Commission is also proposing a directive on concessions in an effort to complete the legal framework on European public procurement. The proposed directive on concessions covers the partnership agreements between a body which is generally public and a business which is often private, where the latter assumes the operative risk linked to maintenance and development of infrastructures (ports, water distribution, car parks, toll roads, etc) or to the supply of services of general economic interest (energy, health, water supply and treatment, waste disposal, etc). It aims to complete the European public procurement regime by including service concessions, the only concession not yet governed by secondary legislation. The proposed rules aim to establish a clear legal framework to ensure the necessary legal certainty for public authorities when performing their duties. They aim to guarantee effective access to the concessions market for all European businesses, including SMEs, and could thus help to stimulate the development of public-private partnerships, for which concessions constitute a tool of choice. The Commission thus proposes the obligatory publication of concessions in the Official Journal of the European Union. It also proposes specifying the obligations of the contracting authorities as regards the choice of selection and award criteria, imposing certain basic guarantees that should be respected during the award procedure and extending the benefits of the Remedies Directive regarding public procurement to any person interested in obtaining a concession. In this regard, Barnier argues for a “light framework with simple rules that do not create excessive administrative costs and only apply high costs for concessions in the event of obvious cross-border cases”. (EH/transl.fl)