Joint procurement procedures are gradually advancing. This is the case of the first procedure, launched at the end of February and updated in mid-March, which concerns personal protective equipment. In a press release issued on Tuesday 24 March, the European Commission said it had received a significant number of offers from the producers of this equipment.
"All over the world, there’s right now a tremendous need for protective clothing and medical equipment. It is therefore a success that the Joint European Procurement Initiative has been able to secure on the world market concrete offers of considerable scale on shortest notice", the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was pleased to say, suggesting that all the participating Member States - 25 - should be served.
However, there is no question of the European institution giving further details on the offers received. "It's still too early", a spokesman said, pointing out that the process was not yet complete. Member States still have to sign a contract with the bidders, "which they should do very rapidly". After that, it will take another 2 weeks for the material to be available.
Two other joint procurement procedures are under way, one - involving 25 Member States - concerning ventilators and the other - involving 19 Member States - concerning test kits. Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, three new countries have joined this procedure, which allows states to benefit from a greater strike force against the industry by negotiating together: Sweden on 28 February, Poland on 6 March and Norway on 20 March. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)