Brussels, 07/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Competitiveness Council of Monday 10 December will try to reach agreement in principle on two pieces of draft legislation to update the European public procurement rules (Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/EC) and a directive setting a framework for public procurement contracts.
Public procurement directives. Six questions need to be ironed out. One of the most important is the mooted system for special services, including culture and social services which, up to a certain threshold, would not be covered by the directives (see EUROPE 10557). The Cypriot Presidency suggests the threshold be set at €750,000 (€250,000 more than suggested by the European Commission), but the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands want €1 million. The presidency's list of special services includes catering, security and temporary staff.
Another stumbling block is public-public cooperation and the threshold for cooperation between two public bodies to be regarded as in-house and therefore exempt from competition rules. The Cypriot Presidency initially suggested 85%, compared with the Commission's initial suggestion of 90%. To keep Germany and France happy, it is now suggesting above 80%.
Most countries reject the Commission's idea of setting up national bodies to monitor proper application of the public procurement directives. The Cypriot Presidency says that for markets below the set thresholds, it is for the Commission to provide figures culled from the TED database on calls for tender.
Another question to be settled is that of the transition phases for application of the rules. The Cypriot Presidency suggests 24 months plus a further 30 months for application of the measures requiring public authorities to accept bids by email.
For the special services directive, discussions are in deadlock over whether to keep a section on companies from outside the EU because the draft regulation introducing greater give-and-take in public tender deals within the EU and in other parts of the world has not yet been agreed.
Contracts. Two major issues are preventing agreement being reached on the contracts directive. Most countries back the Cypriot Presidency's idea of having the same threshold for application of the directive as applies in the normal contracts directive, but Austria wants a threshold of over €5 million. France and Portugal want gambling to be excluded, but Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Sweden are sticking firmly to the Commission's initial proposal. (MB/transl.fl)