Brussels, 16/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has taken on board the views of its international trade committee vis-à-vis draft EU legislation to introduce reciprocity measures to ensure non-EU countries open their markets to European companies. Adopting a first reading opinion, the EP put pressure on the Council of Ministers (where the member states are divided over the issue).
The mechanism says that an adjudicating authority can ask the European Commission to ban non-EU goods and services from entering a bid for public contracts in the EU, but only for projects worth more than €5 million or for contracts where goods and services from outside the EU account for more than half of the total value of the goods and services involved (see EUROPE 10973). This restriction on access to EU public procurement would only be allowed if an investigation by the European Commission reveals a lack of reciprocity in the non-EU country in question or if the country infringes labour law. It would not apply to the least developed nations or the most vulnerable nations (whose economy is not very diversified and not very integrated into the global trade system), whose bids for public contracts in the EU must be considered on the same grounds as bids from other member states.
Nora Berra (EPP, France) welcomed adoption of legislation that deals with a persistent imbalance in international trade, where multinationals from outside Europe take advantage of open access to EU markets although they are protected from foreign competition in their home countries. She said she did not want European companies making the most competitive bid to be dismissed on false grounds or for EU industry to be forced to transfer know-how in return for a hypothetical market share. (MB and EH/transl.fl).