Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2015/1929

What it is

to amend the Financial Regulation (FR) to take account of the new directives on public procurement and on the award of concession contracts awarded by the European institutions on their own account. PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council. BACKGROUND: Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council lays down the rules for the establishment and the implementation of the general budget of the European Union. In particular, it also contains rules on public procurement. The Committee on Budgets adopted the report by Ingeborg GRÄSSLE (EPP, DE) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union. The proposal under consideration aimed at aligning the financial regulation with the new directives on public procurement and on the award of concession contracts awarded by the European institutions on their own account. The committee recommended that the position of the European Parliament adopted in first reading following the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the commission proposal as follows: Principles applicable to public procurement : the estimated value of a contract may not be determined with a view to circumventing the applicable rules , nor may a contract be split up for that purpose. The contracting authority shall give reasons when it decides not to divide a contract into lots. In accordance with the principle of sustainability , contracting authorities shall take suitable measures to ensure that, when executing contracts, economic operators comply with the environmental, social and labour law obligations established by Union or national legislation, collective agreements or the international environmental, social and labour conventions listed in Annex X to Directive 2014/24/EU. Exclusion criteria : in order to protect the financial interests of the Union, Members proposed integrating tax fraud, tax evasion - including tax evasion via untaxed offshore structures - misuse of corporate assets, embezzlement of public funds in the criteria for exclusion from participation in procurement procedures of EU institutions. Conflicts of interests and grave professional misconduct : the report aimed to distinguish different kinds of ‘conflict of interests’ and treat them differently. Accordingly, the term ‘conflict of interest’ should be solely used for cases where an official or agent of an EU institution is in such situation. On the other hand, grave professional misconduct would mean: fraudulently or negligently misrepresenting information; entering into agreement with other economic operators with the aim of distorting competition or violating intellectual property rights; attempting to influence the decision-making process of the contracting authority during the procedure; attempting to obtain confidential information on the procedure. Before taking a decision to…

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