92003E0747

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0747/03

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(11 March 2003)

Subject: Public procurement information

What system does the Commission use to award contracts to official services providing information in the Member States on EU public procurement opportunities?

One such service, Tenders Direct (www.tendersdirect.co.uk), appears to be a commercial operation which charges users for access to information on public tenders. Can the Commission clarify the status of Tenders Direct and whether it has a contract with the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities to provide access to information on tenders?

Is Tenders Direct in a monopoly position as a supplier of information in the United Kingdom on EU public tenders, and if so, how can the Commission justify this situation?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(14 April 2003)

All public procurement opportunities exceeding specific contract values must be published in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (S series, Official Journal S or OJ S) and published throughout the Union. The contract value thresholds above which an invitation to tender must be published throughout the Union are laid down in Union Directives.

The Supplement to the Official Journal is published by the Publications Office both on-line Tenders Electronic Daily (TED http://ted.publications.eu.int) and off-line (CD-ROM OJS). The TED service is free of charge for all users searching for business opportunities while the CD-ROM is for sale. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged (see TED copyright notice).

Anyone wishing to download the contents of TED, e.g. to offer services allowing to alert potentially interested suppliers on Union public procurement opportunities, is invited to sign a licence agreement. Ninety-nine licence holders have signed such a licence agreement with the Publications Office; they are located in all Member states (except Greece) and also outside the Union.

The prices for these licence agreements currently are:

- 1 language: EUR 3 000 per year;

- 2 languages: EUR 3 600 per year;

- 3-11 languages: EUR 3 900 per year.

Tenders Direct is operated by Millstream Associates Ltd, one of the 99 licence holders. On the basis of the bulk data, licence holders often develop their own services such as notification and alert systems for which they may charge users.

Tenders Direct is not in a monopoly position since there are at the moment 25 licence holders in the United Kingdom.