By Michelle Fitzpatrick - 11th May 2006
The European commission has called for a 10-day 'standstill period' to allow rejected bidders time to challenge a government contract award.
By improving rights for losing bidders, the commission hopes to create stronger incentives for EU businesses to bid for contracts anywhere in Europe.
According to the new directive, the 'standstill period' would see procuring authorities having to leave ten days between announcing the awarding decision and signing the contract.
This way, rejected bidders would have a chance to start a review procedure if they felt the contract was awarded unfairly.
The new measure is aimed at tackling the issue of the so-called 'race to signature', one of the major problems of EU procurement law.
It would apply to all public contracts covered by the EU public procurement directives.
Commenting on the proposal, internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy said: "Businesses who bid for public contracts - and taxpayers who ultimately finance them - need to be confident that they are awarded fairly.”
"So if a public authority does make an unfair decision, businesses need to have the opportunity to challenge the decision while it can still be corrected, no matter where in the EU the public authority is based.
"Improving bidders' rights in this way will mean better protection for businesses, more competition and better value for money."
Public procurement contracts account for 16 per cent of the EU’s GDP, according to commission estimates.
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