The IMCO Committee has considered the Commission's proposals for a modernisation of the EU public procurement rules (rapporteur: Marc Tarabella, S&D). This included the revision of Directive 2004/18/EC ("Classic Directive") on procurement by public authorities, and of Directive 2004/17/EC on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors ("Utilities Directive"), as well as a new instrument for the award of concessions contracts. This was further complemented by the adoption of an international procurement instrument ('IPI') on access to and from third country procurement markets, conducted jointly by IMCO and INTA.
Public procurement is the process used by government institutions, public sector organisations and certain undertakings in the utilities sectors to buy supplies, services and public works. Such expenditure is a significant and influential component of the economy. The reform aimed to make the existing rules more flexible and easier to apply, to enable a greater strategic use of public purchasing power (to achieve green, social and innovation-related objectives) and to increase the use of new procurement techniques and tools such as joint buying and e-procurement. The basic challenges had already been debated in two IMCO own initiative reports (rapporteur: Heide Rühle, Greens), adopted in plenary in 2010 and 2011, in response to the Commission's Green Paper consultation.
The parliamentary works were completed within a period of 2 years: The European Commission presented its proposal and the Impact Assessment to the IMCO Members on 9 January 2012, followed by a first exchange of views on 29 February 2012. The negotiations were successfully concluded at first reading with the confirmation of the agreement by COREPER I in July 2013 and IMCO endorsement on 5 September 2013. The full modernisation package was adopted by Parliament in a plenary vote on 15 January 2014, and by Council on 11 February 2014. Amendments had been considered on 18 September and 5 November 2012, and compromise amendments on 28 November 2012. On 18 December 2012 and 24 January 2013, IMCO adopted its reports on, respectively, the classic and the utilities proposals (Classic Directive: 23 votes in favour, 8 against and 7 abstentions; Utilities Directive: 25 votes in favour, 5 against and 8 abstentions). Informal trilogue negotiations with the Council then lasted from February until July 2013.
Rapporteur: Marc Tarabella (S&D)
Shadow rapporteurs: Frank Engel (EPP), Jürgen Creutzmann (ALDE), Heide Rühle (Greens), Malcolm Harbour / Edvard Kožušník (ECR), Dennis de Jong (GUE), Matteo Salvini (EFD).
Source : © European Union, 2014 - EP