Public document to be completed by the Contracting Authority
Compulsory use for service tender procedures of EUR 200,000 or more

SERVICE PROCUREMENT NOTICE

<Contract title>
<Location - Area/region and country/countries >

1. Publication reference

< Publication reference of the corresponding contract forecast notice >

2. Procedure

Restricted

3. Programme

< Phare / Tacis / Cards / Ala / Meda / EDF/ Other >

4. Financing

< Budget line / Financing agreement / Other >

5. Contracting Authority

EITHER European Commission, on behalf of beneficiary country/countries (centralised tender procedures)

OR < The beneficiary > (decentralised tender procedures)

CONTRACT SPECIFICATION

6. Nature of contract

< Study / Technical assistance >

7. Contract description

< Recommended maximum 10 lines >

8. Numbers and titles of lots

< As appropriate >

9. Maximum budget

EUR < Amount >

10. Scope for additional services

< As appropriate >

CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION

11. Eligibility

Participation is open on equal terms to all natural and legal persons of the Member States and the countries and territories of the regions covered and/or authorised by the Regulation or other specific instruments applicable to the programme under which the contract is financed (see also point 28 below).

12. Candidature

All eligible natural and legal persons (as per item 11 above) or groupings of such persons (consortia) may apply.

A consortium may be a permanent, legally-established grouping or a grouping which has been constituted informally for a specific tender procedure. All members of a consortium (ie, the leader and all other partners) are jointly and severally liable to the Contracting Authority.

The participation of an ineligible natural or legal person (as per item 11) will result in the automatic exclusion of that person. In particular, if that ineligible person belongs to a consortium, the whole consortium will be excluded.

13. Number of applications

Candidates (including firms within the same legal group, other members of the same consortium, and sub-contractors) should submit only one application for the current contract [lot], whatever the form of participation (as an individual candidate, or as leader or partner of a consortium candidate). In the event that a natural and legal person submits more than one application, all applications in which that person has participated will be excluded.

14. Shortlist alliances prohibited

Any tenders received from tenderers comprising firms other than those mentioned in the short-listed application forms will be excluded from this restricted tender procedure. Short-listed candidates may not form alliances or subcontract to each other for the contract in question.

15. Grounds for exclusion

As part of the application form, candidates must declare that they do not fall into any of the categories listed in Section 2.3 of the Manual of Instructions for External relations contracts (available from following Internet address: http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/index_en.htm).

16. Sub-contracting

< Specify whether or not sub-contracting will be allowed and, if so, the maximum percentage of the contract value which may be sub-contracted >

17. Number of candidates to be short-listed

On the basis of the applications received, at least 4 and at most 8 candidates will be invited to submit detailed tenders for this contract.

PROVISIONAL TIMETABLE

18. Provisional date of invitation to tender

< Date >

19. Provisional start date of the contract

< Date >

20. Initial contract duration and possible extension

< To be specified >

SELECTION AND AWARD CRITERIA

21. Selection criteria

1) Economic and financial standing of candidate(s) [based on item 3 of the application form]

(a) <reference criterion a> (eg, total annual turnover of candidate(s) must exceed 5 times the maximum budget of the contract)

(b) etc

2) Professional capacity of candidate(s) [based on items 4 and 5 of the application form]

(a) <reference criterion a> (eg, at least 20% of all permanent staff working for the candidates currently work in fields related to this contract)

(b) etc

3) Technical capacity of candidate(s) [based on items 5 and 6 of the application form]

(a) <reference criterion a> (eg, candidate(s) have (all) worked on at least one major project in fields related to this contract in the past three years)

(b) etc

22. Award criteria

As specified in the tender dossier annexed to the letter of invitation to tender which will be sent to short-listed candidates.

APPLICATION

23. Deadline for applications

< Time and date to be specified - must be at the close of business of a working day at least 30 calendar days after the date of publication of this procurement notice > (eg, 16:00 Central European Time on <date>)

Any application received after this deadline will not be considered.

24. Application format and details to be provided

Applications must be submitted using the standard application form (available from the following Internet address: http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/index_en.htm), whose format and instructions must be strictly observed.

Any application which does not observe these provisions will be automatically eliminated. Any additional documentation (brochure, letter, etc) sent with an application will not be taken into consideration.

25. How applications may be submitted

Applications must be submitted exclusively to the Contracting Authority:

EITHER by recorded delivery (official postal service) to :

(for decentralised tender procedures)
<Address of Contracting Authority>
OR
(for centralised tender procedures)
<Address of European Commission>

OR hand delivered (including courier services) directly to the Contracting Authority in return for a signed and dated receipt to:

(for decentralised tender procedures)
<Address of Contracting Authority>
OR
(for centralised tender procedures)
<Address of European Commission>

The Contract title and the Publication reference (see item 1 above) must be clearly marked on the envelope containing the application and must always be mentioned in all subsequent correspondence with the Contracting Authority.

Applications submitted by any other means will not be considered.

26. Additional information

<As appropriate>

27. Date of publication of contract forecast

< Date - must have been at least 30 calendar days before the publication of this procurement notice >

28. Legal basis

<Regulation or other instrument under which this contract is to be financed>

1/2001

Procurement notice for a service contract

CustoM

2001-03-20