Sector-Procurement Directive

Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors

Official Journal No. L 134 of 30/04/2004, p. 001 - 113

full text (pdf; 470 KB)

Overview

Directive 2004/17/EC is an amendment of directive 93/38/EC of the Council of 14 June 1993 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and telecommunication services sectors, which became necessary to satisfy the demand to simplify and modernize. It was implemented in Austria by the Bundesvergabegesetz (BVerG).

Content

The Sector-Procurement directive describes the application and selection of procurement procedures, e.g. notice and communication terms, selection of participants, rules on transparency, etc.

In comparison to directive 93/38/EC this amendment als takes the procurement of telecommunication services (voice telephony, mobile telephone, satellite services and paging) into consideration. It also covers the use of modern, electronic purchasing systems.

Scope

This procurement directive has to be applied to supplies, works and service contracts awarded by contracting authorities or public undertakings (State, regional or local authorities, bodies governed by public law, associations formed by one or several such authorities).

The following activities are within the scope of this directive:

  • Gas, heat and electricity: provision and supply to networks
  • Water: Provision and supply; hydraulic engineering projects, disposal or treatment of sewage,
  • Transport services: provision or operation of networks providing a service to the public in the field of transport (railway, tramway, bus,...),
  • Postal services: provision of postal services (clearance, sorting, routing and delivery of postal items) as well as other listed services,
  • exploring for or extracting oil, gas, coal or other solid fuels as well ass
  • the provision of airports and maritime or inland ports or other terminal facilities to carriers by air, sea or inland waterway.

A further criterion is that the value of the contract be no less than a certain threshold. This threshold is € 499 000 for supply and service contracts and € 6 242 000 for service contracts.

Which contracting entities have to apply this directive is listed in Annexes I to IX.