The European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) adopted, on Monday 29 November, by a large majority (36 votes in favour, 0 against and 6 abstentions), the report by Daniel Caspary (EPP, Germany) on the International Procurement Instrument (IPI).
After almost ten years of discussions, the Council of the European Union adopted its position on this regulation last June (see EUROPE 12732/22). The instrument is expected to penalise bidders from third countries where public procurement discriminates against European companies when awarding public contracts in the EU.
The amendments in the ‘Caspary’ report are broadly in line with the position of the Member States. Like the EU Council, MEPs want the International Procurement Instrument to include two possible measures: - the exclusion of a tenderer, or; - adjusting its score to make its bid less attractive compared to other bidders.
On the other hand, the Parliament wants to tighten up the criteria for the application of the instrument. For works and concessions, the contract value at which the instrument applies should be €10 million, not €15 million as proposed by the EU Council. For goods and services, they agreed on the proposal of a threshold of €5 million.
Exceptions
The European Parliament also wants to reduce the cases where the instrument does not apply. In a compromise amendment, the INTA Committee MEPs have, for example, removed the possibility of not applying the instrument when “the application of the measure would lead to a disproportionate increase in the price or costs of the contract”.
However, MEPs want to go further in exempting the least developed countries. The EU Council planned to exclude countries subject to the ‘Everything But Arms’ preference system from the instrument. The Parliament, on the other hand, wants to extend this exemption to countries that benefit from the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), as well as to countries said to be “vulnerable due to a lack of diversification and insufficient integration within the international trading system”, as described by MEPs in a compromise amendment that was adopted. This is unless the country in question has a competitive economy in the sector concerned.
“The convincing vote of the trade committee is a strong signal both to our European companies and our partners in third countries. The lack of a level playing field has existed long enough”, said Mr Caspary.
The European Parliament’s plenary session is expected to vote on the report in January. After that, the interinstitutional trilogue negotiations will officially start.
See the report (without amendments): https://bit.ly/3I9XYaL (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)