Procurement procedures water, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors (amend. Directive 93/38/EEC)

The Committee adopted a recommendation for second reading by Werner LANGEN (EPP, D) approving the Council common position implementing the GATT Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) in respect of public entities operating in the water, energy, transport and telecommunication sectors. Readers may recall that the Parliament rejected the original proposal at first reading, but since then the Commission has put forward an amended proposal which according to the rapporteur takes into account a majority of the concerns expressed by the Parliament. The Committee adopted five amendments to the common position which aim at explicitly exclude private companies from certain requirements to provide information and statistics. The Committee pointed out that additional obligations for the private sector must be rejected as the GPA is only binding on state contracting entities. �