Title II – Principles, policy objectives and definitions

Article 4

Principles of procurement

1.Procurement shall be guided by the principle of best quality for public money, thereby serving the objective of efficient public spending and investment.

2.Public buyers shall treat economic operators originating from the Union and economic operators which are covered economic operators in accordance with Article 70(1) equally and without discrimination, giving full effect to the free movement of persons, goods and services and the freedom of establishment in the Union's internal market. They shall act in a transparent and proportionate manner.

3.Public buyers shall take appropriate measures to ensure the integrity of the procurement process and to prevent circumstances that may compromise its impartiality and fairness.

Public buyers shall not design their procurement in such a way as to exclude it from the scope of this Regulation or to unduly restrict competition.

4.Public buyers shall take appropriate measures to ensure that, in the performance of public contracts, economic operators comply with applicable obligations relating to the policy objectives set out in Article 5, including applicable obligations in the fields of environmental, social and labour law as established by Union law, national law, collective agreements, or by the international environmental, social and labour law conventions listed in Annex II.

Article 5

Policy objectives

Public procurement shall be guided by the strategic policy objectives of the Union, in particular:

(a)boosting the Union’s competitiveness through a thriving internal market, advancing innovation and reinforcing the Union’s manufacturing and clean industrial base;

(b)the achievement of environmental and climate objectives of the Union;

(c)the pursuit of social justice, fair working conditions and an inclusive society, including as fostered by social dialogue;

(d)the Union's safety, security, resilience and economic security, including through strategic independence.

Article 6

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(1)‘classified information’ means any information or material, regardless of the form, nature or mode of transmission thereof, to which a certain level of security classification or protection has been attributed, and which, in the interests of national security and in accordance with the laws, regulations or administrative provisions in force in the Member State concerned, requires protection against any misappropriation, destruction, removal, disclosure, loss or access by any unauthorised individual, or any other type of compromise;

(2)‘day’ means calendar day;

(3)‘digital business credential tool’ means a digital tool allowing for the verification, exchange and storage of evidence related to the exclusion grounds, selection criteria, origin and other requirements set out pursuant to this Regulation in the procurement procedure and available through the tool;

(4)‘economic operator’ means any natural or legal person, or public entity or group of such persons and/or entities, such as joint ventures, consortia or other including any temporary associations without legal personality, which offers the execution of a work or works, the supply of products or the provision of services on the market;

(5)‘eligibility profile’ means a compiled document generated by the electronic eligibility service referred to in Article 133 which contains information about the economic operator, including information regarding its compliance with exclusion grounds, selection criteria and origin;

(6)‘eProcurement platform’ means a digital tool which allows for the electronic communication between public buyers and economic operators through the interoperability network;

(7)‘eProcurement service provider’ means an economic operator that provides an eProcurement platform;

(8)‘functional requirement’ means a requirement that describes the performance, desired function, capability, outcome or result that works, products or services are intended to achieve, without referring to specific technical means, design, or methods by which those functions or outcomes are achieved;

(9)‘harmonised standard’ means a harmonised standard as defined in Article 2, point (1)(c), of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 37 ;

(10)‘labour-intensive contract’ means a contract with a subject-matter for which the cost of labour normally accounts for at least 50 % of the total contract value;

(11)‘life-cycle’ means all possible consecutive or interlinked stages, or both, including research and development to be carried out, production, trading and its conditions, transport, use and maintenance, throughout the existence of the product, works or services, from the acquisition of raw materials or the generation of resources, to disposal, clearance and end of service or use;

(12)‘micro, small or medium-sized enterprise’ (SME) means a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise as defined in the Annex to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC 38 ;

(13)‘pre-commercial procurement’ means the procurement of research and development services that involves risk-benefit sharing under market conditions and competitive development in phases;

(14)‘procurement detail’ means any information produced or referred to by the public buyer to describe elements of the procurement before the award, including public summaries, technical specifications, the draft contract, templates for the presentation of information by economic operators, information on generally applicable obligations and any additional information;

(15)‘procurement information’ means any data provided by the public buyer covering the full procurement life cycle including before and after the award of the contract;

(16)‘procurement of research and development services’ (‘R&D procurement’) means the procurement of fundamental research, industrial research and experimental development up to original development. Original development of a first product, service or work may include limited production or supply in order to incorporate the results of field testing and to demonstrate that the product, service or work concerned is suitable for production or supply in quantity to acceptable quality standards, but shall not include quantity production or supply to establish commercial viability or to recover research and development costs. R&D procurement may include obtaining the ownership of prototypes or first products, services or works that are developed at the public buyer’s request in the course of and for a particular research and development services procurement contract, but shall not include the commercial deployment of end-products, services or works.

(17)‘public buyer’ means a contracting authority in accordance with Article 7 or a contracting entity in accordance with Article 8;

(18)‘public contract’ means a contract, for pecuniary interest, concluded in writing between one or more economic operators and one or more public buyers and having as its object the execution of works, the supply of products or the provision of services;

(19)‘public service contracts’ means a public contract having as its object the provision of services other than those referred to in point (22);

(20)‘public summary’ means an overview of the procurement at a given time published by the public buyer;

(21)‘public supply contract’ means a public contract having as its object the purchase, lease, rental or hire-purchase, with or without an option to buy, of products. Products may be new, used, refurbished, remanufactured and product-as-service. A public supply contract may include, as an incidental matter, siting and installation operations;

(22)‘public works contract’ means a public contract having as its object one of the following:

(a)the execution, or both the design and execution, of works related to one of the activities within the meaning of Annex V;

(b)the execution, or both the design and execution, of a work;

(c)the realisation, by whatever means, of a work corresponding to the requirements specified by the contracting authority exercising a decisive influence on the type or design of the work;

(23)‘societal challenge’ means a development or situation that has implications for the effective and efficient delivery of public tasks, impacting the functioning of the public buyer or buyers concerned, or the persons who rely on those services;

(24)‘innovative solution proposal’ means a proposal from an economic operator outlining their innovative approach to address a societal challenge, including the risks involved, the potential impact and benefits, and their vision for developing, testing and implementing the innovative solution in cooperation with the public buyer;

(25)‘subcontractor’ means an economic operator that acquires through contractual means the responsibility to perform a part of the public contract – excluding the mere provision of goods or parts that are necessary for the provision of a work or service – from an economic operator that has been awarded such public contract;

(26)‘subject-matter of the contract’ means the works, services or supplies that the public buyer intends to acquire through the procurement with a view to meeting its needs;

(27)‘work’ means the outcome of building or civil engineering works taken as a whole which is sufficient in itself to fulfil an economic or technical function.