Highlights - Access of third-country goods and services to the Union’s internal market - Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Mr. A. Jessen (DG Trade) and Mr. J. Robberecht (DG Markt) presented the relevant proposal for a Regulation and the accompanying impact assessment, focusing mainly on the rationale, the objectives and the policy options. The proposal was prompted by the need to improve EU access to third country procurement markets and increase the Union's leverage in international negotiations. Moreover, the instrument of a Regulation, remedies the current fragmentation of the internal market and, hence, guarantees legal certainty for third country access in the Union's procurement market. Finally, the Commission clarified that the proposal establishes the principle of openness as the default rule, while the possibility of contracting authorities to exclude foreign bids or the possibility of the Commission to adopt proportional restrictive measures are essentially exceptional mechanisms.

 

Members overall supported the rationale and objectives of the proposal - i.e. to ensure the reciprocal openness of third country procurement markets - but expressed doubts as to the practicality of its implementation, especially taking into account the limited resources and expertise of national authorities. Concerns were equally raised regarding the protectionist character of the proposed Regulation and the distorted signal which the EU risks communicating to its trading partners.