Provision of Consultancy, Assistance and Development Services Regarding XML, SGML, HTML and XHTML Matters

Item Description:

The European Commission, the Publications Office of the European Union referred to below as the contracting authority, is planning to award the contract(s) resulting from the above procurement procedure. The procurement documents consist of the contract notice, the invitation letter, the draft contract(s) and tender specifications with their respective annexes. All documents are available in the attached ZIP File.

Nature of the contract

The contract is a multiple framework contract (FWC) in ‘sleeping cascade’ with the title ‘Provision of consultancy, assistance and development services regarding XML, SGML, HTML and XHTML matters’.

As exact implementing conditions, quantities and/or delivery times cannot be indicated in advance, the contracting authority intends to conclude an FWC which shall establish the basic terms for a series of specific contracts or order forms, the latter being a simplified form of specific contracts (hereafter collectively referred to as ‘orders’) to be issued over its duration. The FWCs do not give rise to any direct obligation on the part of the contracting authority; it is only their implementation through orders that is binding on the part of the contracting authority. See also Article I.4.3 of the FWC.

The FWC will be concluded in English. All formal communication related to the FWC and its implementation will be done in the language of the FWC.

The FWC shall be concluded in the form of separate but identical FWCs with three (3) economic operators at most (provided that there are enough economic operators who are not excluded and who satisfy the selection criteria and the award criteria).

After evaluation, the successful tenderers will be ranked in descending order with a view to establishing a list of contractors and a sequence in which they will be offered work when orders are placed. The second contractor in the cascade will only be asked to provide the services foreseen in the FWC if the FWC with the first contractor has been terminated. The third contractor in the order of the cascade will only be asked to provide the services foreseen in the FWC if the FWCs with the first and the second contractor have been terminated.

In the event of tasks requiring specific profiles of Expert XML (EXP-XML) or professional conflict of interests (see the Specifications) the order will be issued after the contractors have again competed on the basis of the same and, if necessary, more precisely formulated terms, and, where appropriate, on the basis of other terms referred to in the specifications (point 2.13 and Article I.4.3.2 of the FWC).

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