Brussels, 15/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 16 January, the European Parliament endorsed the changes to the public procurement directives and new rules, which will come into force in 2016.
EP rapporteur Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium) said that, by increasing the quality and efficiency of services for individuals, facilitating access to the market for small business, ensuring the respect of good working conditions and environmental criteria, progress had been made for society across the board. He said that public authorities would now be able to better promote social and environmental standards when carrying out work, buying supplies or commissioning services.
An adjudicating authority will be encouraged to choose the best bids economically rather than simply the cheapest, which means it would be able to factor in the costs throughout a product's or a service's life time and set criteria for contracts, for example, to encourage the employment of the disabled or use of non-toxic materials. A simplified system has been set up for competition in the social sector, healthcare and culture beyond a threshold of €750,000. Finally, abnormally low bids resulting from failure to comply with EU social and environmental rules will not be allowed.
Transparency has been introduced for the first time for successful bidders which then subcontract work to others. Tarabella explained that a company will have to indicate before it implements the contract which part or parts of it it is planning to subcontract, along with details of the subcontractor(s). He was unable to get a binding system of joint liability set up at EU level - liability will be a question for each member state to decide.
Small business. The new rules will make it easier for small businesses to bid for public contracts. The documentation required for a bid will be made less cumbersome. A standard EU form will enable business to easily make bids in other countries. Only the company winning the contract will have to provide certificates and similar proof and the splitting of contracts into a number of bids will be encouraged, along with e-bidding after a 54-month transition period.
There is abundant case-law in the realm of public procurement, and the EU legislator has now ended the legal uncertainty about the rules applying to public-public contracts (cooperation among a number of public players).
Concessions. Toll roads and other such bids where the contract-winner will make financial gains that offset in part or in full the cost of providing the services are different from other public contracts in that the bidder bears some of the market risk and will be paid, in part at least, for the service provided. A special directive introduced a threshold of €5 million for such contracts, giving the adjudicating authorities plenty of latitude. One of the political battles in this connection was exempting the supply of drinking water (along with national lotteries, civil protection, media, financial services and legal services) from the new rules (see EUROPE 10873). Philippe Juvin (EPP, France), EP rapporteur on this directive, said the new rules would not end up privatising public services. (MB/transl.fl)