News

Final procedural approval given to new EU public procurement rules

Thursday 20 February 2014 08:44 CET | News

The General Affairs Council within the Council of Ministers voted to approve three new EU Directives, on public sector procurement, utilities sector procurement and the procurement of works and services concessions by contracting bodies in the public and utilities sectors.

The package of reforms was approved by the European Parliament last month, after MEPs had informally agreed on the wording of the new laws with EU Ministers. Now the EU Ministers have given their formal backing to the reforms.

The Directives have to be implemented into national law within two years following the expiry of the first 20 days following their publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

One aspect of the changes contained in the new Public Procurement Directive allows contracting authorities to be able to consider social aspects amongst other criteria for determining which bid for a contract they put out to tender is the most economically advantageous to accept.

In addition, public bodies will be able to limit competition for specific health, social and cultural contracts to mutuals and social enterprises where those organisations satisfy certain conditions. The reforms also set new mandatory grounds for excluding suppliers from competitions for contracts.


Free Headlines in your E-mail

Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.

Subscribe now

Keywords: procedural approval, EU, public procurement, procurement rules
Categories: Banking & Fintech
Companies:
Countries: World
This article is part of category

Banking & Fintech