Darstellung faire Beschaffungsverfahren

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The EU wants to use the International Procurement Instrument (IPI) to make access to public contracts and procurement procedures in non-EU countries easier for European businesses. In the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper), the EU Member States today endorsed the agreement on the relevant proposal for a Regulation reached between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. The IPI has thus passed a major hurdle after about ten years of negotiations since the publication of the first Commission proposal.

Sven Giegold, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, said: "We want transparent and non-discriminatory procurement procedures – not only in Europe. We will not sit back and watch as European companies are being systematically discriminated against abroad. Procurement procedures in the EU should in future no longer be open to businesses from non-EU countries unless European firms are also allowed to participate in public procurement procedures in these states. I congratulate the French Presidency of the Council of the EU and the whole EU on the agreement on the new International Procurement Instrument. This is an important signal in favour of open and transparent markets."

The aim of the IPI is to open public procurement markets in states outside the EU for European companies and to facilitate fair access to procurement procedures in non-EU countries. In the context of procurement procedures throughout the EU, bids from enterprises from non-EU countries which provide only insufficient access to their internal markets for European bidders can in future be discriminated against or even excluded. This is to increase the willingness of third countries to open their procurement markets for companies from the EU – e.g. by acceding to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) or by concluding bilateral agreements on market access.

The proposal remains to be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council before it enters into force.