B-Brussels: assessing the employment and social impacts of selected Commission policies

Country:

Belgium

City/Locality:

BRYJELLES

Notice/Contract Number:

eu:77551-2008

Publication Date:

Mar 22, 2008

Buyer:

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Original Language:

English

Address:

EUROPEAN COMMISSION
BRUSSELS , Région de Bruxelles-Capitale / Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest
Belgium

Email:

Click here

Notice Type: C398
-
Contract award
Regulation of Procurement: European Institution/Agency or International Organisation
EU Official Journal Publication: 58/2008
, #
77551-2008
Referenced Document Number: 142094-2007
Contract Nature: Service contract
Procedure Type: Contract awards
Type of Bid Required: Not defined
Awarding Criteria: The most economic tender

Summary:
Contract award notice
Services
Section I: Contracting authority
I.1) Name, addresses and contact point(s): European Commission,
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities DG, DG EMPL/D/1, attn:
Mr Radek Maly, Head of Unit, Rue Joseph II 27, B-1049 Bruxelles/Brussel.
Contact: Sigried Caspar. Tel. (32-2) 296 00 47. Fax (32-2) 296 91 55.
E-mail: sigried.caspar@ec.europa.eu.
Internet address(es):
General address of the contracting authority:
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/emplweb/tenders/index_en.cfm.
I.2) Type of the contracting authority and main activity or activities:
European institution/agency or international organisation.
Employment.
The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting
authorities: no.
Section II: Object of the contract
II.1) Description
II.1.1) Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority:
Assessing the Employment and Social Impacts of Selected Commission
Policies.
II.1.2) Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of
performance: Services.
Service category No 11.
Main place of performance:
B-Bruxelles/Brussel.
NUTS code: BE10.
II.1.4) Short description of the contract or purchase(s): Employment or
social impacts are potentially present in almost all Commission proposals.
Nevertheless in certain cases these impacts are difficult to assess
because of the multi-facet character of the policy proposals, and the
complexity of their interactions with employment and the social field. The
aim of the study is to inform about and — more selectively — to apply
standard and 'best available' methodologies to assess social and
employment effects on a number of new case studies. 4 realms have been
selected for this study, corresponding to emerging or strengthened policy
priorities for the following years:
— the review of trade policy,
— the Internal Market review,
— the Community transport policy,
— the Community energy policy.
The project should furthermore help to identify the most relevant
policy-initiatives within these fields as early and as concretely as
possible. That means the project will reflect on the way how best to
provide an impact assessment in these areas and provide some indicative
results. The approach should be as specific as possible. The review of the
different assessment methods and approaches will require distinguishing
between different impacts (certain impacts are better identified and
analysed with some approaches than with others). Therefore the contractor
will be asked either to work on the basis of the standard methodology
mentioned above or to develop a heuristic within which the work is
performed. The following dimensions should be explicitly and in all policy
fields differentiated: efficiency and distributional, immediate and medium
to long-term. This means also that model-supported approaches are very
welcome.
Trade policy review: in its Communication 'Global Europe: Competing in the
World' (COM(2006) 567 of 4.10.2006), the Commission has set out a strategy
to improve the contribution of trade policy to the Growth and Jobs
(Lisbon) Strategy. The Action Plan announces a renewed Market Access
Strategy, new bilateral trade relations (Free Trade Agreements such as the
Community preferential regime for imports from less developed countries),
a liberalisation of procurement, and more effective trade defence
instruments (Green paper on trade defence instruments — COM (2006) 763).
In respect to trade policy it might be important to investigate whether
there are specific sectoral employment impacts to be observed.
Internal Market Review: the Commission's internal market review aims at a
better functioning of the Internal Market, by enhanced transparency and
better regulatory mechanisms. A major stocktaking exercise is under way
(see COM(2007) 60) and a further communication is awaited for the autumn
2007. The contribution of the Single Market to job creation has been the
subject of quantified assessments since the announcement of the Single
Market programme in the late '80s including recent estimates of the
employment impact of the internal market for services. At least the
following 2 major areas should be investigated in particular:
A. Consumer policy — the Commission has already identified
consumer-related policies as a field which could boost growth and jobs,
through various measures improving consumer confidence, investment in
retail markets, developing electronic commerce, etc. (see e.g. COM(2007)
99 on the new Consumer policy strategy).
B. Further VAT rates harmonisation. The current VAT rate structure
consisting of a single standard rate of at least 15 % and 1 or 2 reduced
rates, was decided in 1992 as an essential step to abolish controls at
frontiers. Council Directive 2006/18/EC of 14.2.2006 authorised Member
States to continue to apply, by way of experiment, reduced rates for
labour intensive services until 2010. The Commission will present towards
mid 2007 an analysis and proposals for re-launching the debate on the
impact of reduced rates, and on the scope for wider adaptations after 2010
(e.g. taxation at the place of consumption and a single rate). The
geographical impacts of internal market policy could be a point for
specific attention, in addition to the mere employment and income aspects.
Transport policy: transport policy is facing partly conflicting
challenges. The 2 main challenges are to reduce environmental damage
caused by traffic, mainly reducing CO2 emissions, and second to support
the performance of the transport system as such because transport and
mobility are preconditions for the functioning and well-being in our
economic and social system. This case study should take the mid-term
review of the European Commission's 2001 transport White Paper (COM(2006)
314) as a reference. There are several concrete policy initiatives ongoing
on the European level, such as the implementation of intelligent tolling
systems and the introduction of intelligent traffic-management systems
(also linked with developments in logistics, the promotion of
inter-modality). Some are clearly attributable to the environmental or
economic objectives, while others — including the tolling systems but also
inter-modality projects — aim at ecological and economic benefits. Whereas
economic theory and theory-based evaluation approaches often work on the
basis of incremental change, fundamental structural changes may have to be
envisaged in this policy field. This aspect might have consequences for
impact assessment approaches and should be given consideration under this
part of the study.
Energy policy: energy policy lies at the crossroads of environmental
policy and any strategy towards economic performance. The main drivers for
energy policy are sustainability, competitiveness and security of supply.
Balancing these objectives without losing employment and social issues out
of perspective is a major challenge. The Commission aims to achieve these
objectives with different policies, notably:
— by proposing an intensified use of renewable energies (including
biofuels),
— by fostering a more efficient use of energy (CO2 emission of cars,
better isolation of buildings, energy-efficient heating and cooling
systems, energy-efficiency directive, emission trading scheme), and
— by promoting a diversification of energy sources and better technologies
(to prevent emissions from conventional energies, CO2 capturing, etc.),
— and by liberalising the energy market in general.
The energy policy Communication COM(2007) 1 should be taken as the main
reference for this case study. While the employment effects of market
liberalisation have already been investigated, this analysis should only
be briefly revisited. Specific attention should be paid to assessing
trade-offs between different policies in the field of energy policy and to
the close links between energy policy on the one hand and environment and
industrial policy on the other hand.
II.1.5) Common procurement vocabulary (CPV): 73200000, 74140000,
74130000, 75310000.
II.2.1) Total final value of contract(s): EUR 280 217,50, excluding VAT.
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1.1) Type of procedure: Open.
IV.2) Award criteria
IV.2.1) Award criteria: The most economically advantageous tender in
terms of:
1. quality of the proposal; weighting: 40;
2. methodology; weighting: 60.
IV.2.2) An electronic auction was used: Yes.
IV.3) Administrative information
IV.3.1) File reference number attributed by the contracting authority:
VT/2007/060.
IV.3.2) Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract: Contract
notice number in OJ: 2007/S 116-142094 of 20.6.2007.
Section V: Award of contract
Contract No VC/2007/0351
Title: Assessing employment and social impacts of selected strategic
European Commission policies
V.1) Date of contract award: 8.10.2007.
V.2) Number of offers received: 4.
V.3) Name and address of economic operator to whom the contract has been
awarded: Ecorys Nederland BV, Watermanweg 44, 3067 GG Rotterdam,
Netherlands. Tel. (31-10) 453 88 00. Fax (31-10) 453 07 68. E-mail:
netherlands@ecorys.com. URL: www.ecorys.com.
V.4) Information on value of contract: Initial estimated total value of
the contract: EUR 280 217,50, excluding VAT.
Total final value of the contract: EUR 280 217,50, excluding VAT.
V.5) The contract is likely to be subcontracted: No.
Section VI: Complementary information
VI.1) Contract related to a project and/or programme financed by
Community funds: Yes.
Reference to project(s) and/or programme(s): Progress Programme —
Employment section.
VI.3) Procedures for appeal
VI.3.1) Body responsible for appeal procedures: Court of First Instance
of the European Communities, boulevard Konrad Adenauer, L-2925 Luxembourg.
Tel. (352) 43 03-1. Fax (352) 43 37 66. E-mail: ECJ.Registry@curia.eu.int.
URL: http://curia.europa.eu/en/insit/txtdocfr.index.htm.
Body responsible for mediation procedures:
The European Ombudsman, 1, avenue du Président Robert Schuman, F-67001
Strasbourg. Tel. (33) 388 17 23 13. Fax (33) 388 17 90 62. E-mail:
euro-ombudsman@europarl.eu.int. URL: www.euro-ombudsman.eu.int.
VI.3.2) Lodging of appeals: Precise information on deadline(s) for
lodging appeals:
within 2 months of the notification of the plaintiff or, in absence
thereof, of the day on which it came to knowledge. A complaint to the
European Ombudsman does not have as an effect either to suspend this
period or to open a new period for lodging appeals.
VI.3.3) Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may
be obtained: Court of First Instance of the European Communities,
boulevard Konrad Adenauer, L-2925 Luxembourg. Tel. (352) 43 03-1. Fax
(352) 43 37 66. E-mail: ECJ.Registry@curia.eu.int. URL:
http://curia.eu.europa.eu/insit/txtdocfr/index.htm.
VI.4) Date of dispatch of this notice: 12.3.2008.

B-Brussels: assessing the employment and social impacts of selected Commission policies

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