Brussels, 20/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - A coalitition of around fifteen NGOs have welcomed the "Concordia bus Finland" decision by the Court of Justice, which determines that environmental and social criteria can count in the awarding of public contracts (see EUROPE 19 September p 16).
The coalition, which includes Greenpeace, Solidar and Oxfam, has noted that the decision on the Court confirms that, "when the public authorities spend public money, the economic benefits must reflect the public interest more broadly and not exclusively the interest of the contracting authority". In the same way, the association representing the disabled, the European Disability Forum, explained in a press statement that the Court had stipulated that factors which are not purely economic cannot be ruled out when deciding the value of an offer for the contracting authorities.
Speaking on behalf of the Commissioner of the Internal Market on Thursday, the spokesman for Frits Bolkestein, explained that the Court ruling, "confirms the Commission's interpretation". The conclusion in the decision, "can already be found in the Commission proposals", declared Jonathan Todd.
The NGOs, however, believe that the directive proposals on public contracts during the second reading at the Council and Parliament contradict this decision insofar as they stipulate that the first criteria in awarding a public contract must be the price of the offer itself. The NGO coalition is therefore calling on the "Competition" Council to revise the "public contract" directive so that it takes the decision into account.
Last May, the Council reached a policy agreement, which includes "environmental characteristics" among the criteria for allocating public contracts. On the other hand, the policy agreement is more ambiguous with regard to the "social criteria", referring to them as a "consideration of the draft directive". By adopting the Zappala report at the first reading, the European Parliament is requesting that the two criteria are clearly included in the body of the text. MEPs are expected to confirm this position during the second reading, which will certainly lead to conciliation procedure with the Council.