Rules concerning third countries' reciprocal access to EU public procurement : annex I : methodological aspects

This briefing note addresses eight specific issues identified by the European Parliament Committee on International Trade (INTA) and related to the Commission's proposed new rules concerning third countries' reciprocal access to EU public procurement. The main findings are that, while the European Commission points the attention to a serious policy issue and the Impact Assessment (IA) document is in many parts detailed and informative, the Commission should have assessed more accurately the current level of de facto openness of EU and non-EU public procurement markets, which is not as imbalanced as the document states. At the same time, the Commission IA does not fully take into account the costs that the preferred policy option would entail both in terms of retaliation by trading partners, and in terms of additional costs for taxpayers due to less competition in internal EU domestic markets. The briefing note also states that some aspects of the proposal (e.g. subsidiarity, the €5 million threshold and the impact on SMEs) are not fully assessed or entirely missing in the IA document. As a result, the European Parliament should focus on ensuring that the proposed "reciprocity-enhancing" instrument does not undermine at once the future prospects of EU businesses in large international procurement markets, the prospects of EU SMEs in participating to intra-EU bids led by non-EU businesses, and the potential benefits that would derive to European citizens from a reduction of government spending triggered by more competitive procurement.