Lead Story Headline
Inside this issue:
Introduction
1
Where are these
opportunities
advertised?
2
How to use
the EU
Tenders
Elect ronic
Daily?
3
Glossary
6
Useful links
6
EU Tendering opportunitis
Introduction
The EU legislation covering public
procurement is Directive 2004/18/EC.
This rule coordinates procedures for
the award of public works contracts,
public supply contracts and public
service contracts.
The “Utilities Directive” 2004/17/EC
covers companies operating in the
water, energy, transport and postal
services sectors. Most features of the
Directives are common to both
sectors. Yet Directive 2004/17/EC
provides more flexibility in tendering
procedures, e.g. higher thresholds
apply to service contracts.
The following public contracts are
excluded from the scope Directive
2004/18/EC:
- Contracts awarded with the purpose
of providing or exploiting public
telecommunications networks
- Contracts which are declared to be
secret
- Contracts concluded pursuant to
international agreements
- Contracts concerning some services
such as arbitration and conciliation
services or the purchase, sale or
transfer of financial instruments
- Service contracts awarded on the
basis of an exclusive right
- Service concessions
Directive 2004/18 EC applies to
public work contracts, public supply
contracts and public service
contracts which have a value
excluding VAT estimated to be no
less than the following thresholds:
These thresholds are verified by the
European Commission every two
years. The calculation of their value
is based on the average daily value
of the Euro over 24 months. New
thresholds should be published on 1
January 2010.
1
Selling goods to new markets is not
the only way to begin trading within
the European Union (EU). Many
contracts in the EU are put out to
tender and under EU law businesses
across Europe are equally entitled to
compete for the