| | Preamble to Directive 1977/62COUNCIL DIRECTIVE
of 21 December 1976
Coordinating procedures for the award of public supply contracts
(77/62/EEC) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular article 100 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (1),
Having regard to the opinion of the economic and social committee (2),
Whereas restrictions on the free movement of goods in respect of public supplies are prohibited by the terms of articles 30 et seq. of the treaty;
Whereas that prohibition should be supplemented by the coordination of the procedures relating to public supply contracts in order, by introducing equal conditions of competition for such contracts in all the member states, to ensure a degree of transparency allowing the observance of this prohibition to be better supervised;
Whereas access to public supply contracts for products originating in countries other than the member states is the subject of the Council resolution of 21 December 1976 (3) and of the Commission statement of 21 December 1976 (4);
Whereas, in the case of public works contracts, coordination was based on certain principles relating to the prohibition of technical specifications having a discriminatory effect, to the advertising of contracts throughout the community, to the fixing of objective criteria as to entitlement to compete for contracts and the introduction of a joint supervision procedure to ensure observance of these principles; whereas this method and these principles should be applied likewise to public supply contracts with adjustments to take account of the individual character of the contracts in question;
Whereas this directive does not prevent the application, in particular, of articles 36 and 223 of the treaty;
Whereas the bodies currently administering transport services in the member states are governed in some cases by public law, in others by private law; whereas, in accordance with the objectives of the common transport policy equality of treatment should be ensured not only between separate undertakings concerned with the same mode of transport but also between such undertakings and undertakings concerned with other modes of transport;
Whereas, pending the drafting of measures for coordinating the procedures applicable to transport bodies and in view of the said special circumstances, those authorities referred to above, which by reason of their legal status would fall within it, should be excluded from the scope of the directive;
Whereas it is necessary to avoid subjecting the production, distribution and transmission or transport services for water and energy and telecommunications services to different supply contract systems, depending on whether they come under the state, regional or local authorities or other legal persons governed by public law or whether they have separate legal personality; whereas it is therefore necessary to exclude from the scope of the directive those services referred to above which by reason of their legal status would fall within its scope until such time as a final solution can be adopted in the light of experience;
Whereas provision must be made for exceptional cases where measures concerning the coordination of procedures may not necessarily be applied, but such cases must be expressly limited;
Whereas supply contracts of less than 200 000 European units of account can be exempted, inasmuch as their impact on competition is limited;
Whereas by decision no 3289/75/ecsc of 18 December 1975 (5) the Commission, with the assent of the Council, defined a European unit of account which represents an average value of the variations in the currencies of the member states; whereas the value of this unit of account in each of the currencies of the member states is determined daily; whereas its use for the purposes of the directive requires that a reference date be fixed;
Whereas to ensure development of effective competition in the field of public contracts it is necessary that contract notices drawn up by the contracting authorities of member states be advertised throughout the community; whereas the information contained in these notices must enable suppliers established in the community to determine whether the proposed contracts are of interest to them; whereas for this purpose it is appropriate to give them adequate information about the goods to be supplied; whereas, more particularly in restricted procedures, advertisement is intended to enable suppliers of member states to express their interest in contracts by seeking from the contracting authorities invitations to tender under the required conditions;
Whereas additional information concerning contracts must, as is customary in the member states, be given in the contract documents for each contract or in an equivalent document;
Whereas, as indicated in the Council resolution of 21 December 1976 (6), the directive will be reviewed and may be revised,
Has adopted this directive:
(1) OJ no c 46, 9. 5. 1972, p. 34.
(2) OJ no c 30, 25. 3. 1972, p. 17.
(3) OJ no c 11, 15. 1. 1977, p. 1.
(4) OJ no c 11, 15. 1. 1977, p. 2.
(5) OJ no l 327, 19. 12. 1975, p. 4.
(6) OJ no c 11, 15. 1. 1977, p. 3.
(7) OJ no l 185, 16. 8. 1971, p. 15.
(8) See page 15 of this Official Journal.
(9) OJ no l 124, 8. 6. 1971, p. 1. |
|
|
