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About Contracts - Introduction

Procurement

In accordance with its Founding Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No 168/2007), the FRA has legal personality and may enter into contractual relationships with persons, companies and other legal entities. 
All European bodies including the FRA have to respect strict procurement rules when contracting economic operators (persons, companies or other legal entities). The conclusion of a contract is only possible after the successful completion of a tendering procedure. The mandatory tendering procedures used by the FRA in accordance with its Financial Regulation are: open call for tender, restricted call for tender, negotiated procedure, single tender.


About Contracts - In Details

Tendering procedure

The conclusion of a contract is only possible after the successful completion of a tendering procedure. In accordance with the Financial Regulation of the FRA, as regards procurement, the tendering procedures are those provided for in the relevant provisions of the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities:

  • open call for tender,
  • restricted call for tender,
  • negotiated procedure,
  • single tender.

In the case of open tender procedures, FRA will publish its contract notices and the tender specifications on its Website but only some time after mandatory publication of the contract notice has taken place in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). The specifications (a file containing all the information on the procurement procedure, including any questionnaires required to submit tenders) may be downloaded from FRA's Website.

Applicants are advised to make sure to read very carefully the instructions on how (envelopes, amount of copies etc.) and until when to submit offers, as any failure to meet the requirements might lead to the exclusion from the tendering procedure. Offers can be submitted either by post or by hand.

After the deadline for the submission of offers has lapsed, all envelopes will be opened at the same time by a tender opening committee. Then, an evaluation committee will be called to assess the offers according to the selection and the award criteria mentioned in the contract notice and/or tendering specifications concerning the respective call for tender.

The award stage starts with the signature of the award decision by the authorising officer. This is followed by the notification of the results to all the tenderers, both successful and unsuccessful simultaneously. All unsuccessful applicants have the right to request in writing additional information on the justification for the award decision.

After completion of the financial procedure, the FRA will conclude a written contract with the successful tenderer.

Often the FRA will state that the contractual relationship between FRA and the successful tenderer will be governed by a special type of contract known as a "framework contract". It should be stressed that framework contracts involve no direct commitment and, in particular, do not constitute orders per se. Instead, they only lay down the legal, financial, technical and administrative provisions governing the relationship between FRA and the contractor during their period of validity and should orders be placed thereunder.

Economic operators are informed that the conclusion of a written contract is mandatory for the FRA and oral agreements cannot be considered binding for these entities.

Once the contract is signed with the successful tenderer, an award notice is published in the Official Journal of the European Union.  

Annually a list of contractors of the FRA is published on this website, specifying the subject and the amount of the contracts awarded in the previous financial year.

About Low value contracts

Where necessary and justified, the FRA may invite economic operators for negotiated procurement procedures for the acquisition of supplies, works and services, in accordance with EU public procurement rules and the Commission Regulation (EC, EURATOM) No 2342/2002 of 23 December 2002 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 1) as amended at the latest by Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 478/2007 of 23 April 2007 (OJ L 111 of 28.04.2007).

Negotiated procurement procedures with a value exceeding €25.000 and below €60.000 will be advertised on this website.

We invite you to periodically check the Procurement section for Low value contracts.

The low value contracts are implemented through purchase orders. These purchase orders are governed by specific General Terms and Conditions for low value contracts.


Document(s)
  • General Terms and Conditions for low value contracts  en  application/pdf (PDF File 125 KB)
  • Financial rules applicable to FRA (Financial regulation)  en  application/pdf (PDF File 1607 KB)