EU procurement law: Technical specifications (I)

The aim of European Community (European Union) procurement rules is to open up public purchasing to competition in the internal market. Technical specifications favouring certain (national) tenderers can defeat this purpose before the competition has started.

The subject of technical specifications will be covered in more than one post.


***

Article 23 Technical specifications

Article 23 of the Procurement Directive 2004/18/EC lays down long and complicated rules for the technical specifications allowed in order to ensure a fairly level playing-field between potential bidders:


CHAPTER IV
Specific rules governing specifications and contract documents

Article 23
Technical specifications

1. The technical specifications as defined in point 1 of Annex VI shall be set out in the contract documentation, such as contract notices, contract documents or additional documents. Whenever possible these technical specifications should be defined so as to take into account accessibility criteria for people with disabilities or design for all users.

2. Technical specifications shall afford equal access for tenderers and not have the effect of creating unjustified obstacles to the opening up of public procurement to competition.

3. Without prejudice to mandatory national technical rules, to the extent that they are compatible with Community law, the technical specifications shall be formulated:

(a) either by reference to technical specifications defined in Annex VI and, in order of preference, to national standards transposing European standards, European technical approvals, common technical specifications, international standards, other technical reference systems established by the European standardization bodies or — when these do not exist — to national standards, national technical approvals or national technical specifications relating to the design, calculation and execution of the works and use of the products. Each reference shall be accompanied by the words ‘or equivalent’;

(b) or in terms of performance or functional requirements; the latter may include environmental characteristics. However, such parameters must be sufficiently precise to allow tenderers to determine the subject-matter of the contract and to allow contracting authorities to award the contract;

(c) or in terms of performance or functional requirements as mentioned in subparagraph (b), with reference to the specifications mentioned in subparagraph (a) as a means of presuming conformity with such performance or functional requirements;

(d) or by referring to the specifications mentioned in subparagraph (a) for certain characteristics, and by referring to the performance or functional requirements mentioned in subparagraph (b) for other characteristics.

4. Where a contracting authority makes use of the option of referring to the specifications mentioned in paragraph 3(a), it cannot reject a tender on the grounds that the products and services tendered for do not comply with the specifications to which it has referred, once the tenderer proves in his tender to the satisfaction of the contracting authority, by whatever appropriate means, that the solutions which he proposes satisfy in an equivalent manner the requirements defined by the technical specifications.

An appropriate means might be constituted by a technical dossier of the manufacturer or a test report from a recognised body.

5. Where a contracting authority uses the option laid down in paragraph 3 to prescribe in terms of performance or functional requirements, it may not reject a tender for works, products or services which comply with a national standard transposing a European standard, with a European technical approval, a common technical specification, an international standard or a technical reference system established by a European standardisation body, if these specifications address the performance or functional requirements which it has laid down.

In his tender, the tenderer must prove to the satisfaction of the contracting authority and by any appropriate means that the work, product or service in compliance with the standard meets the performance or functional requirements of the contracting authority.

An appropriate means might be constituted by a technical dossier of the manufacturer or a test report from a recognised body.

6. Where contracting authorities lay down environmental characteristics in terms of performance or functional requirements as referred to in paragraph 3(b) they may use the detailed specifications, or, if necessary, parts thereof, as defined by European or (multi-) national eco-labels, or by and any other eco-label, provided that:

— those specifications are appropriate to define the characteristics of the supplies or services that are the object of the contract,

— the requirements for the label are drawn up on the basis of scientific information,

— the eco-labels are adopted using a procedure in which all stakeholders, such as government bodies, consumers, manufacturers, distributors and environmental organisations can participate, and

— they are accessible to all interested parties.

Contracting authorities may indicate that the products and services bearing the eco-label are presumed to comply with the technical specifications laid down in the contract documents; they must accept any other appropriate means of proof, such as a technical dossier of the manufacturer or a test report from a recognised body.

7. ‘Recognised bodies’, within the meaning of this Article, are test and calibration laboratories and certification and inspection bodies which comply with applicable European standards.

Contracting authorities shall accept certificates from recognised bodies established in other Member States.

8. Unless justified by the subject-matter of the contract, technical specifications shall not refer to a specific make or source, or a particular process, or to trade marks, patents, types or a specific origin or production with the effect of favouring or eliminating certain undertakings or certain products. Such reference shall be permitted on an exceptional basis, where a sufficiently precise and intelligible description of the subject-matter of the contract pursuant to paragraphs 3 and 4 is not possible; such reference shall be accompanied by the words ‘or equivalent’.


***

Annex VI

Article 23(1) refers to Annex VI Definition of certain technical specifications (on page 137 of the consolidation of 15 September 2008 of the Procurement Directive), which contains a number of definitions necessary for understanding and navigating the provisions.

Perhaps the best solution is the present the text in full for ease of reference:


ANNEX VI
DEFINITION OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

For the purposes of this Directive:

1. (a) ‘technical specification’, in the case of public works contracts, means the totality of the technical prescriptions contained in particular in the tender documents, defining the characteristics required of a material, product or supply, which permits a material, a product or a supply to be described in a manner such that it fulfils the use for which it is intended by the contracting authority. These characteristics shall include levels of environmental performance, design for all requirements (including accessibility for disabled persons) and conformity assessment, performance, safety or dimensions, including the procedures concerning quality assurance, terminology, symbols, testing and test methods, packaging, marking and labelling and production processes and methods. They shall also include rules relating to design and costing, the test, inspection and acceptance conditions for works and methods or techniques of construction and all other technical conditions which the contracting authority is in a position to prescribe, under general or specific regulations, in relation to the finished works and to the materials or parts which they involve;

(b) ‘technical specification’, in the case of public supply or service contracts, means a specification in a document defining the required characteristics of a product or a service, such as quality levels, environmental performance levels, design for all requirements (including accessibility for disabled persons) and conformity assessment, performance, use of the product, safety or dimensions, including requirements relevant to the product as regards the name under which the product is sold, terminology, symbols, testing and test methods, packaging, marking and labelling, user instructions, production processes and methods and conformity assessment procedures;

2. ‘standard’ means a technical specification approved by a recognised standardising body for repeated or continuous application, compliance with which is not compulsory and which falls into one of the following categories:

— international standard: a standard adapted by an international standards organisation and made available to the general public,

— European standard: a standard adopted by a European standards organization and made available to the general public,

— national standard: a standard adopted by a national standards organization and made available to the general public;

3. ‘European technical approval’ means a favourable technical assessment of the fitness for use of a product for a particular purpose, based on the fulfilment of the essential requirements for building works, by means of the inherent characteristics of the product and the defined conditions of application and use. European technical approvals are issued by an approval body designated for this purpose by the Member State;

4. ‘Common technical specification’ means a technical specification laid down in accordance with a procedure recognised by the Member States which has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union;

5. ‘technical reference’: any product produced by European standardisation bodies, other than official standards, according to procedures adopted for the development of market needs.


***


Where and when?

According to Article 23(1) of the Procurement Directive the technical specifications (as defined in point 1 of Annex VI) are to be in the contract documentation, such as contract notices, contract documents or additional documents.


***

Accessibility criteria: Disabled persons



Article 23(1) contains a strong recommendation to take into account accessibility criteria for people with disabilities or design for all users whenever possible in defining the technical specifications.


***

We continue the presentation of technical specifications in public procurement in later blog posts.



Ralf Grahn