Translation of "Ouverture des marchés publics " (French → English) :

1. Refers to its comments in its resolution of 18 May 2010 on new developments in public procurement, and especially to paragraph 46 of this resolution stating that, while arguing strongly against protectionist measures in the field of public procurement at global level, it firmly believes in the principle of reciprocity, mutual benefit and proportionality in that area; and calls on the Commission to conduct a detailed analysis of the potential benefits and problems associated with imposing proportional, targeted restrictions on access to parts of the EU's procurement markets, an impact assessment analysing when it might be used and an ...[+++]assessment of the legal basis that such an instrument would take for those trading partners which benefit from the openness of the EU market, but have not shown any intention of opening up their own markets to EU companies, while continuing to encourage the partners of the EU to offer reciprocal and proportional market access arrangements for European companies before proposing any other new text in the area of public procurement;

44. Calls on the Commission to make public procurement procedures more effective and less bureaucratic in order to encourage EU firms to participate in cross-border public procurement; stresses that further simplification is needed especially for local and regional authorities and to allow SMEs greater access to public procurement; urges the Commission to provide data regarding the level of openness of public procurement and to ensure reciprocity with other industrialised countries and major emerging economies; invites the Commissi ...[+++]on to look into new ways of improving the access for European enterprises to public procurement markets outside the EU, in order to ensure a level playing field for both European and foreign enterprises competing for the award of public contracts;

44. Calls on the Commission to make public procurement procedures more effective and less bureaucratic in order to encourage EU firms to participate in cross-border public procurement; stresses that further simplification is needed especially for local and regional authorities and to allow SMEs greater access to public procurement; urges the Commission to provide data regarding the level of openness of public procurement and to ensure reciprocity with other industrialised countries and major emerging economies; invites the Commissi ...[+++]on to look into new ways of improving the access for European enterprises to public procurement markets outside the EU, in order to ensure a level playing field for both European and foreign enterprises competing for the award of public contracts;

Although the internal energy market is well established, malfunctioning (identified by the sector inquiry into the gas and electricity markets) persists, preventing both consumers and the economy from getting the full benefit of the advantages of opening up the national gas and electricity markets.

The report presents the progress made on the internal gas and electricity market since the opening of national markets to competition on the 1st July 2007.

At the same time, open procurement demands a pro-active competition policy to ensure that anti-competitive practices (i.e. state aids, cartels) do not undo the benefits that open procurement procedures can bring.