The European Parliament and the Council of the EU are getting close to an agreement on the regulation instituting the international public procurement instrument (IPI). With this tool, the European Commission will be able to penalise, in EU tenders, companies from countries that discriminate against EU firms in their public procurement contracts.
Interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) were held again on Thursday, 10 February; the remaining sticking points were identified and categorised according to their level of difficulty.
One of these is the amount of the public contract below which the instrument will not apply. The EU Council’s mandate provides that the IPI is to be used for tenders that exceed an amount set by the European Commission and that are not expected to be less than €15 million for works and concessions and less than €5 million for goods and services.
However, in December, the European Parliament voted on a text that provides a €10 million threshold for works and concessions only (see EUROPE 12853/18 and 12843/7). This point—which is particularly sensitive on the EU Council side—will have to be taken up again at the next trilogue, according to two sources.
Negotiations are also still open on the issue of exempting certain countries from the application of the instrument. In MEPs’ opinion, both least developed countries and developing countries that are considered vulnerable should be excluded from the IPI. As such, these countries should not be investigated by the European Commission and, thus, would not be subject to IPI measures.
It represents too many countries for Member States, according to one source. Nevertheless, they have agreed to exempt least developed countries.
Other issues remain open between the EU Council and the European Parliament, which are also waiting for proposals on how to word the text from the European Commission at the next meeting, due to take place on 1 March.
According to the two sources interviewed by EUROPE, it is highly unlikely that an agreement will be reached at that time. However, they have noticed some positive developments that could enable an agreement to be reached later in March. This is the wish of the French Presidency of the EU as well. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)