DG Internal Market and Services – Unit C1 "International Dimension ofPublic Procurement"DG Trade - Unit DGA2.E.2 "Public Procurement and Intellectual Property"European Commission, SPA2 05/081, 1049 Brussels, BelgiumEuropean Commission, CHAR 06/187, 1049 Brussels, Belgium[email protected]

Consultation on an initiative on access of third countries to the EU's

public procurement market

General comments

The EU is based upon free trade and well functioning competition. Ifthese values are to be converted to real influence in relation to ourneighbours and global partners, it requires that the EU thinks and acts co-hesively. A strengthening of the EU’s global position will benefit boththe European citizens and enterprises in the global competition for pros-perity and welfare.The EU’s relationship with the new and emerging economies such asChina, India and Brazil, are important in order for the EU to act effi-ciently in international relations. In the wake of the global economic cri-sis it is vital that the EU continues to actively apply trade policy to createbetter framework conditions for the European business community bothin relation to export, strengthened global production chains and invest-ment. In this regard, economic openness is crucial for increased growthand job creation in the EU.

Specific comments

The Danish government considers the open EU markets to be a strengthand not a weakness. Therefore, considerable efforts should be made intrade negotiations to ensure further openness on external markets in orderto create better access for EU companies.Open markets and competition is a necessity for free global trade, it in-creases the overall efficiency in the markets, it creates economic growthand a better allocation of the world's limited resources. Consistently, theopenness of EU’s public procurement markets leads to higher quality oftenders, promotes productivity and innovation, and facilitates better solu-tions at lower costs.It is the opinion of the Danish government that further liberalization ofglobal trade is created by consistently working on opening up the marketsand not by raising new barriers on trade. Limitation of access to EU mar-kets for companies from third countries will only lead to lesser competi-tion and increased prices. An initiative that closes the EU markets for

public procurement for companies from third countries is therefore notsupported.Furthermore, it is the Danish government’s opinion that the way to createaccess for EU companies to public procurement markets outside the EUis by keeping the competition for public contracts in the EU open to allcompanies irrespective of country of origin. The openness of the EUmarkets creates the competitive conditions that are essential for the Euro-pean companies’ productivity and competitiveness. A limitation of theaccess to EU-markets for public procurement includes the risk, that arange of countries follows example and closes their local markets for for-eign competitors, thereby closing third country markets for EU compa-nies further than it is the case today.Therefore, the Danish government strongly believes that the open mar-kets of the EU are an advantage, both in terms of free global trade andpublic procurement. Consistently, the Danish government does not sup-port any initiative – this being any legislative instrument as well any non-legislative approach – that entails a limitation of market access and de-creases the competition for public contracts in the EU.Because of the importance of the open markets, the Danish governmentbelieves that EU should send a clear signal of continued openness of theEU public procurement markets and a continued support of global freetrade.