With the launch of a new initiative on international public procurement, the European Commission is continuing its efforts to ensure better access to international markets for EU companies.
On Wednesday, 13 November, the Commission presented a detailed database containing information on public procurement practices in key trading partners, including obstacles to access. The aim of the International Public Procurement Initiative (IPPI) is to improve EU companies' access to public procurement in nine of its main partners: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Thailand and the United States.
With information on nearly 40 million public contracts, including a list of approximately 400 obstacles, this database “is the most complete of its kind”, stated the Commission in a press release.
This is not the first European initiative to aim to ensure reciprocal access to these lucrative international markets for European companies - which are worth several billion euros - and it will probably not be the last.
Legislative work has resumed within the Council of the EU on introducing an instrument for regulating participation of third-country companies in public procurement, in accordance with the request from March’s European Council (see EUROPE 12220/1).
In addition, last July, the EU called on Member States to strengthen the criteria for access by third-country companies to their procurement contracts (see EUROPE 12304/6). (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)