Activities of Vicky FORD related to 2011/0438(COD)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on public procurement
Amendments (11)
Amendment 51 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 17
Recital 17
(17) Research and innovation, including eco-innovation and social innovation, are among the main drivers of future growth and have been put at the centre of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Public authorities should make the best strategic use of public procurement to spur innovation. Buying innovative goods and services plays a key role in improving the efficiency and quality of public services while addressing major societal challenges. It contributes to achieving best value for public money as well as wider economic, environmental and societal benefits in terms of generating new ideas, translating them into innovative products and services and thus promoting sustainable economic growth. This directive should contribute to facilitating public procurement of innovation and help Member States in achieving the Innovation Union targets but should not introduce mandatory quotas for innovative public procurement as this would restrict competition and the choice of the contracting authorities. A specific procurement procedure should therefore be provided for which allows contracting authorities to establish a long-term innovation partnership for the development and subsequent purchase of a new, innovative product, service or works provided it can be delivered to agreed performance levels and costs. The partnership should be structured in such a way that it can provide the necessary ‘market-pull’, incentivising the development of an innovative solution without foreclosing the market.
Amendment 54 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 26
Recital 26
(26) Joint awarding of public contracts by contracting authorities from different Member States currently encounters specific legal difficulties, with special reference to conflicts of national laws. Despite the fact that Directive 2004/18/EC implicitly allowed for cross-border joint public procurement, in practice several national legal systems have explicitly or implicitly rendered cross-border joint procurement legally uncertain or impossible. Contracting authorities from different Member States may be interested in cooperating and in jointly awarding public contracts in order to derive maximum benefit from the potential of the internal market in terms of economies of scale and risk-benefit sharing, not least for innovative projects involving a greater amount of risk than reasonably bearable by a single contracting authority. Therefore new rules on cross-border joint procurement designating the applicable law should be established in order to facilitate cooperation between contracting authorities across the Single Market. In addition, contracting authorities from different Member States may set up joint legal bodies established under national or Union law. Specific rules should be established for such form of joint procurement. Where cross-border procurement is unlikely to be achieved, contracting authorities should be able to deviate from European public procurement rules in favour of a simpler regime.
Amendment 69 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 39
Recital 39
(39) It is of utmost importance to fully exploit the potential of public procurement to achieve the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy for sustainable growth. In particular public procurement is key to driving innovation, which is of great importance for future growth in Europe. In view of the important differences between individual sectors and markets, it would however not be appropriate to set general mandatory requirements for environmental, social and innovation procurement. The Union legislature has already set mandatory procurement requirements for obtaining specific goals in the sectors of road transport vehicles (Directive 2009/33/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles) and office equipment (Regulation (EC) No 106/2008 of the European Parliament and the Council of 15 January 2008 on a Community energy-efficiency labelling programme for office equipment). In addition, the definition of common methodologies for life cycle costing has significantly advanced. It therefore appears appropriate to continue on that path, leaving it to sector-specific legislation to set mandatory objectives and targets in function of the particular policies and conditions prevailing in the relevant sector and to promote the development and use of European approaches to life-cycle costing as a further underpinning for the use of public procurement in support of sustainable growth.
Amendment 70 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 40
Recital 40
(40) These sector-specific measures must be complemented by an adaptation of the public procurement Directives empowering contracting authorities to pursue the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy in their purchasing strategies, for example measuring costs in relation to the energy saving potential of products or services. It should hence be made clear that contracting authorities can determine the most economically advantageous tender and the lowest cost using a life-cycle costing approach, provided that the methodology to be used is established in an objective and non- discriminatory manner and accessible to all interested parties. The notion of life-cycle costing includes all costs over the life cycle of works, supplies or services, both their internal costs (such as development, production, use, maintenance and end-of- life disposal costs) and their external costs, provided they can be monetised and monitored. Common methodologies should be developed at the level of the Union for the calculation of life-cycle costs for specific categories of supplies or services; whenever such a methodology is developed its use should be made compulsory.
Amendment 72 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 40 a (new)
Recital 40 a (new)
(40a) When using a life-cycle costing approach to purchase energy efficient products and services, the energy efficiency of a collection or group of purchases as a whole should take priority over the energy efficiency of an individual purchase, taking into account technical suitability and intended use.
Amendment 113 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 28 – paragraph 4
Article 28 – paragraph 4
4. Competitive dialogues may take place in successive stages in order to reduce the number of solutions to be discussed during the dialogue stage by applying the award criteria defined in the contract notice or in the descriptive document. In the contract notice or the descriptive document, the contracting authority shall indicate whether it will use this option.
Amendment 114 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 28 – paragraph 6
Article 28 – paragraph 6
6. Having declared that the dialogue is concluded and having so informed the participants, contracting authorities shall ask themeach participant to submit their final tenders on the basis of the solution or solutions presented and specified during the dialogue. Those tenders shall contain all the elements required and necessary for the performance of the project.
Amendment 115 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 29 – paragraph 1
Article 29 – paragraph 1
1. In innovation partnerships, any economic operator may submit a request to participate in response to a contract notice with a view to establishing a structured partnership for the development of an innovative product, service or works and the subsequent purchase of the resulting supplies, services or works provided that they correspond to the agreed performance levels and costs. A contracting authority should clearly describe which intellectual property rights, if any, it wants to acquire as a result of the contract either in advance, as part of the contract notice, the descriptive document or the invitation to confirm interest, or at a later stage as part of the contract negotiation.
Amendment 116 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 29 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Article 29 – paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Contracting authorities should not foreclose the market by pre-determining the innovative solution they are seeking, but rather they should be open to a range of different solutions to a given problem in order to incentivise the most innovative ideas.
Amendment 117 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 29 – paragraph 2
Article 29 – paragraph 2
2. The partnership shall be structured in successive stages following the sequence of steps in the research and innovation process, possibly up to the manufacturing of the supply or the provision of the services. It shall provide for intermediate targets to be attained by the partner and provide for payment of the remuneration in appropriate instalments. Based on those targets, the contracting authority may decide either to contract on a phase by phase basis with the potential for different partners for different stages of the process, or it may decide to contract for multiple phases with the same partner or partners. The contracting authority may also decide after each stage to terminate the partnership and launch a new procurement procedure for the remaining phase or phases, provided that ithe contracting authority has acquired the relevant intellectual property rights. or otherwise made appropriate remuneration as agreed with the partner or partners.
Amendment 191 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 66 – paragraph 2 – point a
Article 66 – paragraph 2 – point a
(a) quality, including technical merit, aesthetic and functional characteristics, accessibility, design for all users, environmental characteristics and innovative character including inter alia additional innovative solutions that are in addition to minimum requirements laid down in the contract notice, the descriptive document or the invitation to confirm interest;