Firms claim food and vet office ‘in breach of tendering rules’

Date: 17/01/02

By Martin Banks

LEGAL action may be taken against the European Commission over its tendering procedure for a lucrative contract at its new Food and Veterinary Office.

The FVO - the only Commission directorate based outside Brussels or Luxembourg - is due to open at the end of March in Grange, Ireland.

However, local businesses say they have been excluded from bidding to supply services such as catering, cleaning, building maintenance and refuse removal. Lawyers representing the firms have written to the Commission's health and consumer protection directorate saying its procedure is in breach of EU directives.

Anthony Murphy, secretary of the chamber of commerce, said: 'The present proposal is in breach of the EU's own directives on tendering for public finance contracts which require that sub-contracts be made available both locally and internationally within the EU.'

Thorsten Muench, spokesman for Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne, said the contract had not yet been awarded and that it was possible local people could be recruited.

The FVO has already proved controversial.

Several MEPs have warned that its location, in a remote town some 25 miles from the Commission's recommended site in Dublin, will be unpopular with the 160 staff to be based there. Concerns have also been expressed about its lack of facilities and the quality of the drinking water.

EU leaders decided in 1993 to set up the FVO in a town to be chosen by the Irish government. Despite the Commission's preference for the capital, the government selected the site of an agricultural establishment in the constituency of the then prime minister, John Bruton.

The European Commission is facing legal action over its tendering procedure for contracts at its new Food and Veterinary Office after local businesses complained that they have been excluded from bidding for serviecs. The agency is due to open at the end of March 2002 in Grange, Ireland