CEEP welcomes the Commission staff working paper on the application of EU public procurement law to relations between contracting authorities (“public public cooperation”).This is a positive signal to public service providers who need clarity and simplicity when carrying out their mission for citizens.

Public-public cooperation is a type of internal provision of services of general economic interest, which does not need to be subjected to public procurement rules. This is top priority to public services in the context of modernisation of EU public procurement rules and on any proposal on service concessions.

For reasons of legal clarity, CEEP proposes a positive definition of the “in-house provision of services” in the future legislation, which should follow the example of the “internal operator” as defined in Regulation (EC) 1370/2007 on public transport. Both the issue of legal certainty and freedom of choice of the organisation of services by authorities and especially local and regional authorities could only be guaranteed by such a provision.

CEEP has already underlined this need on a number of occasions when discussing the issue of public private partnerships, concessions and public procurement rules.

Previous CEEP Opinions on this issue are available on our website: www.ceep.eu

For further information, please contact:

Valeria RONZITTI, Director of CEEP - tel. +32 (0) 2 219 27 98

CEEP gathers enterprises and organisations from across Europe, both public and private, at national, regional and local level, which are public employers or providers of services of general interest. CEEP members employ a quarter of the EU workforce; CEEP is one of the three European Social Partners.