Public Procurement Package

- takes the view that the regulatory framework for public procurement should pay greater attention to value for money in procurement. The primary aim for a contracting authority running a procurement procedure is to purchase certain supplies, services or works, and the rules should ensure that the procedure does in fact result in a transaction that is satisfactory to the buyer, the vendor and the public. Simple and intelligible rules will of course also facilitate cross-border trade more than anything else;

- finds it regrettable that some new proposals are also difficult to understand and extraordinarily detailed, as well as adding a number of new provisions. Certain provisions to facilitate procurement have also been added, but other new additions add to the administrative burden on contracting authorities despite the fact that legal stability is required in order for public procurement to be carried out smoothly;

- believes that it is certainly possible to develop simpler – but no less effective – rules for procurement, as demonstrated, not least, by the fact that the WTO's Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) is much simpler than the equivalent EU rules. The Commission is asked to significantly increase the thresholds for procurement. Given that a minuscule percentage of public procurement is cross-border, and in view of the administrative burden the regulatory framework creates for authorities and suppliers, the thresholds do not need to be as low as they are;

- points out that the proposal contravenes the Member States' right to organise their own administration and is in breach of the subsidiarity principle. It is important for the subsidiarity and proportionality principles to be respected. A proposed EU measure must be both necessary to achieve the objectives and more effective than measures taken at national level.