Brussels, 17/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - After two sessions of negotiations with the Irish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers on revision of the public procurement directives, the European Parliament is getting impatient.
“Negotiations have not yet started. I expect proper negotiations between two institutions which have the same co-legislative powers”, Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium) told EUROPE on Tuesday 16 April, two days before a third trialogue was due to be held. He said that the EP had made a step towards the Council on the provisions on electronic public procurement, by agreeing to a long lead time for these provisions to enter into force (four years after the entry into force of the revised directive). He expects to see greater flexibility on the part of the Council on the subjects most important to it.
If not, the aim of reaching an interinstitutional political agreement by the end of the Irish Presidency, in June, will be compromised. “If the EU is is not able to put its signature to the text, we can continue under the Lithuanian Presidency”, he said. However, the European Council has made the revision of the public procurement directives and the introduction of a European framework for service concessions, two measures referred to in the Single Market Act, a priority matter.
Sub-contracting. Tarabella reiterated his commitment to introducing ambitious provisions on taking social and environmental criteria into account when awarding public contracts (see EUROPE 10772 and 10755). “Having nothing at all on the question of sub-contracting would be unacceptable”, he warned. The same applies to respecting European/national rules and collective agreements governing labour law issues. On this point, only Belgium, France and Italy would support the European Parliament's position, which has solid agreement across political groups. (MB/transl.fl)