Brussels, 24/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's internal market committee (IMCO) questioned the European Commission on Thursday 23 April over transposition of the directives on the award of concessions contracts and on public procurement, both of which are to be incorporated into national law by 18 April 2016.
The MEPs on the committee want more information on progress in the transposition process and on difficulties that member states might have met. They expressed concern over the public procurement directive's single document which companies have to submit in calls for tender. Philippe Juvin (EPP, France) made the point that the Parliament was calling for an easy-to-complete document, identical in all member states and, above all, able to be re-used in further public tenders. “We will be very vigilant on this because, if the document does not meet these criteria, it will change the very nature of the rules”, he added. “We want detailed information how the discussions are going now” on this issue, said Dennis De Jong (GUE, Netherlands).
The Commission representative refused, however, to give details, arguing that transparency was “absolute” but that the discussions were “still continuing”. She did, however, speak about a “middle way” that would reduce bureaucracy for companies while ensuring a minimum level of information in the document. With regard to the transposition process, she said an “intensive dialogue” was being conducted with the member states by means of an electronic platform for information and exchange of best practice. She said no point had posed a problem to the member states as a whole and the United Kingdom was the only member state to have fully transposed the directive.
She did not respond to the questions put by Belgian Socialist Marc Tarabella who asked about the attitude of the member states on collective employment agreements and the transparency imposed on the chain of sub-contractors. Juvin and Pascal Durand (Greens/EFA, France) also expressed their concern over transposition of the public procurement directive by France. The French government has elected to carry out the transposition by Order, thereby avoiding the debate in Parliament. On this point, the Commission could only acknowledge that this was a matter outside its control. (Jean Comte)