Brussels, 17/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided that markets awarded by its services of a value of less than 500,000 euro will no longer need the prior opinion of the Advisory Committee on Procurements and Contracts (CCAM). To date, the threshold was set at 46,000 euro. For the Commission, it is a question of "placing the responsibility on the authorizing officers", i.e. the officials who decide on the awarding of contracts, and who will thus have to assume alone the decision of awarding of markets of less than 500,000 euro. This decision will also relieve the burden of work of the CCAM, which, according to the Commission, should henceforth deal with 250 cases a year, instead of 750. Finally, this is a means of preparing for the abolition the need for all markets to gain the prior opinion of the CCAM, abolition proposed by the Commission in its proposal on the overall revision of the financial regulation. Although the Commission may decide to raise the threshold for a case to be referred to the CCAM, it still needs the agreement of the Council and European Parliament to abandon this prior opinion for all markets.