Brussels, 20/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 19 November, the European Parliament (EP) approved the revision of the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) in the framework of the World Trade Organisation.
According to Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL, Germany), rapporteur on this dossier, the EU will enjoy new commercial outlets which have been put at €30 billion. It will also benefit from an extension of the scope of application of the GPA, with an increase in the number of contracting entities and goods and services covered (e.g. the construction markets in South Korea). In Japan, South Korea and Israel, the applied thresholds will be reduced. In exchange, the EU is extending the cover of its markets to the countries of the European Economic Area (EEA), the United States, Japan, Switzerland and Taiwan. It has offered work concessions to South Korea, the countries of the EEA and Switzerland as long as Japan reciprocally partially opens up its railway sector and Canada its intra-federal public procurement system. The revised GPA will enter into force once it has been ratified by two thirds of the countries which are parties to the agreement.
European Commissioner for the Internal Market Michel Barnier immediately welcomed the EP vote, which will ensure that “GPA parties will further open up their domestic public procurement markets to EU bidders”. “This uniquely commercial approach to public procurement, to the sole benefit of a few large groups, is aberrant” and “purely ideological” said Yannick Jadot (Greens/EFA, France), in the opposite corner. He argued in favour of “tightening up the social and environmental conditions” in public procurement and of the “possibility of including a geographical preference to promote local SMEs”, subject to stringent democratic and legal controls. (MB/transl.fl)