Proposal for a Council Decision establishing the position to be taken by the European Union within the Committee on Government Procurement with respect to decisions implementing certain provisions of the Protocol Amending the Agreement on Government Procurement

The Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) is to date the only legally binding agreement in the WTO on the subject of government procurement. Its present version was negotiated in parallel with the Uruguay Round in 1994, and entered into force on 1 January 1996 (the "1994 GPA").

The Parties to the 1994 GPA are: Armenia, Canada, European Union with respect to its 27 Member States, Hong Kong-China, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands with respect to Aruba, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, Chinese Taipei, United States. The GPA is administered by the Committee on Government Procurement (hereinafter the “Committee”).

The 1994 GPA contains a built-in commitment to negotiations on both the text and coverage of the Agreement since its adoption in 1994 (Article XXIV:7(b)). Negotiations to that end were launched in 1999.

Negotiations have been conducted by the Commission on behalf of the EU. The Council was regularly informed orally and in writing about the state of play of the negotiations via the Trade Policy Committee. In addition, co-ordination meetings with Member States were held prior to each negotiating session in Geneva. The European Parliament has been informed regularly in writing via the INTA Committee.

On 30 March 2012 the negotiators adopted a Decision on the Outcomes of the Negotiations whereby they adopted the elements of the results of the negotiations (“Decision on the Outcomes of the Negotiations”) consisting of: i) the Protocol amending the Agreement on Government Procurement (hereinafter the "Protocol") and ii) seven Decisions (hereinafter “the Decisions”) of the Committee.

As both the Protocol and the Decisions are the object of the agreement adopted in March 2012, they form part of the same package for the purpose of the EU ratification of the GPA revision. As the Union will be required to take a position with regard to the Decisions at the first meeting of the Committee following the entry into force of the Protocol, the Decisions are subject to a different internal decision-making procedure than the Protocol. Therefore a separate Council Decision is needed with regard to the Decisions, in addition to the one concerning the conclusion of the Protocol.

If the Council, after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament, adopts a decision to conclude the Protocol Amending the Agreement on Government Procurement on behalf of the European Union, the Union should be in a position to take a position with regard to the Decisions within the Committee.

See also:
- Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion of the Protocol Amending the Agreement on Government Procurement

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)142: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:142:FIN

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