On 24 July 2006 the European Commission published guidance on how public authorities should award fairly contracts which are of low value. While these contracts do not fall within the EU's public procurement regime, the Commission advises that they should nevertheless be awarded in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner where there is a potential for cross-border interest in the contracts.

The Commission's guidance is not binding but suggests best practice for public authorities on how to award contracts in a transparent and non-discriminatory way.

The guidance applies to public authorities' services or supplies contracts with a value of less than EUR137,000 (for central government bodies) or EUR211,000 (for other public bodies) or works contracts under EUR5,278,000. The guidance is also relevant to services contracts which fall within the EU's public procurement directives but to which only a very limited set of rules apply ("Part B services").

The guidance focuses on three main areas:

  • Advertising - how widely the contract should be advertised, methods of advertising which could be used, what the advertisement should contain;
  • Contract award - how to ensure a transparent and objective approach, appropriate time-limits, ensuring mutual recognition of certificates, diplomas or other formal qualifications from different EU Member States, ensuring equal access for economic operators from all Member States and non-discriminatory description of the contract’s subject-matter;
  • Review procedures - decisions taken in the course of the award procedure should be susceptible to a review of their impartiality; public authorities should be prepared to state grounds for decisions and provide for a mechanism for challenging decisions.

The Commission hopes that this guidance will increase compliance with the transparency and non-discrimination principles and also stimulate competition for low-value contracts. For more details on the Commission's guidance, please click here.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

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The original publication date for this article was 27/07/2006.