Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-10-24-Speech-1-065-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20111024.14.1-065-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, honourable Members, I wish to offer my very sincere thanks to Ms Rühle and the members of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection for this report, which is an important contribution. You said, ‘I hope that we will have a tool’. I note, for my part – not least because I have participated in your debates ever since I became a Commissioner – that Parliament has a genuine tool at its disposal in many areas, and we – I, in the work I have been doing over the last few weeks to modernise European public procurement – certainly regard this report as a crucial contribution; what you have written and what you have said together will be extremely useful.
With this aim in mind, we are in favour of eliminating the disproportionate requirements imposed on economic operators with regard to their financial standing. I therefore want to set a maximum level of turnover that may be demanded of a business as proof of its ability to carry out a contract.
We are also considering a possible allotment obligation, in other words, an obligation to divide public procurement contracts into lots, so that small and medium-sized enterprises can more easily bid for contracts through smaller lots.
Ladies and gentlemen, after simplification, we are going to use this package to try to improve the existing legal framework, to help ensure that societal objectives that are, moreover, included in the Europe 2020 strategy, namely, the environment, social inclusion and innovation, can be achieved.
Of course, we must be careful not to increase the administrative burden on contracting authorities. I have taken due note of the strong opposition to certain ideas, not least that of imposing ‘what to buy’ obligations that could undermine this simplification objective, expressed during the public consultation, in particular. In this package, we are considering some specific measures to promote the integration, via public procurement, of cross-cutting objectives that correspond to the new requirements of our society.
That is why we are working to improve the assessment of life-cycle cost, which encourages public authorities to take into account the entire life cycle of goods when making purchases.
We are looking at ways of clarifying the scope for contracting authorities to take the production process into consideration. This should enable Member States and contracting authorities to take into account, among other things, employees’ working conditions, respect for the minimum wage, collective agreements and International Labour Organisation conventions.
Furthermore, with regard more specifically to innovation – this is an issue on which Malcolm Harbour regularly updates me and on which he and the other members of the committee are very vigilant – I should like this objective of promoting innovation to become more formal. That is why we are considering creating a new partnership procedure that is specifically aimed at promoting innovative procurement by contracting authorities.
Another aspect that is particularly close to my heart, as you know, is social services of general economic interest (SSGEI). I would like to relax the rules further in this area, by giving the Member States even more freedom to organise their tender procedures for SSGEI, in accordance, of course, with the principles of transparency and non-discrimination.
Lastly, we also want to ensure that, in the case of SSGEI, contracting authorities can base their choice on quality criteria and can take all the specific features of these services into account.
To conclude, Ms Rühle, ladies and gentlemen, we want to work with you to ensure better governance, by professionalising public procurement, in particular, to ensure more integrated procedures, better prevention of conflicts of interest and the implementation of better demand aggregation tools for small contracting authorities.
Public procurement accounts for 17% of Europe’s GDP. We are therefore talking about economies, about jobs and about growth. I am genuinely very pleased with the convergence that I see between the report on which you are due to vote and the work that I am currently overseeing on the forthcoming legislative procedures. Indeed, ladies and gentlemen, the review of the Public Procurement Directives is part of a general programme to overhaul public procurement throughout Europe. In addition to the review of the directives, this programme, on which I am working with my colleagues, includes a directive on concessions – which have their own specific features, as we well know. This justifies the creation of a separate text, albeit one that remains consistent with the overall reform.
As we said in the Single Market Act, and as I can confirm to you, the Commission will be adopting a legislative proposal on the reform of public procurement before the end of this year. It will be an ambitious proposal. That is why I wish to express my gratitude once again for the quality and the precision of your report, which will help us not only to develop, I hope, good cooperation between Parliament, the Commission and the Council, but also to draft sound legislative proposals over the next few weeks.
This package also includes an external aspect of our policy, with regard to which I am going to propose, in agreement with my colleague, Mr De Gucht, an instrument to guarantee reciprocal access to public procurement at international level. These three initiatives will together make up the legislative package that I am going to propose to the College in a few weeks’ time, in December.
What stage have we reached, and what do we plan to do following on from, and in the spirit of, the knowledge you impart in this report?
We are working on the following options, which I shall describe to you briefly. Firstly, the simplification of procedures. That is the number one objective. To achieve it, we are working towards the wider use of the negotiated procedure with prior publication. The latter is a good way of helping public authorities to purchase goods and services that genuinely meet their specific needs. This procedure could be accompanied by the safeguards necessary to ensure respect for the principles of non-discrimination and equal treatment.
We also plan to drastically reduce the amount of documentation. To be perfectly honest, I believe – and in my previous career as the head of a local authority in my country, I had cause to launch many tendering procedures – that it is excessive for businesses to have to provide at times – and we see this very often in practice – more than 20 documents issued by various authorities, often for a fee, for a single tender bid. This is discouraging many businesses, and especially small and medium-sized enterprises, from participating in tendering procedures. We could therefore replace this documentation with self-declarations by entrepreneurs. Only the tenderer who wins the contract would be required to present valid certificates.
Lastly, we are working towards strengthening and developing the digitisation of public procurement. This is another vital method of simplification. We could make digitisation mandatory in certain cases, in order to make the recording of data on computer – rather than on paper – the standard, or default, method, in the same way as e-mail is used for personal written communication.
All of these measures will help to reduce the amount of red tape, both for contracting authorities and for enterprises, especially small and medium-sized ones.
I now come to my second objective, which is also in line with your report, namely, finding ways of improving access to public procurement for small and medium-sized enterprises, which – I would remind you – make up 80% to 90% of Europe’s economic fabric, and which themselves have a huge amount of job-creation, growth and innovation potential."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples