Provision of MedCOI Quality Assurance Services & Comparative Legal Research

Item Description:

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

The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) was established by Regulation (EU) 439/2010 as an independent and specialised body to strengthen EU countries’ practical cooperation on asylum, to support EU countries whose asylum and reception systems are under particular pressure and to enhance the implementation of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS).

Medical Country of Origin Information (hereinafter MedCOI) is a service provided by EASO in order to improve access to such Information for national migration and asylum authorities in Europe. Member States and Associated Countries use MedCOI in order to improve the collection of medical COI, needed for international protection and other (e.g. humanitarian, pre-removal) migration procedures, and share competences, knowledge and information.

Since 2010, MedCOI is a service which forms part of various MedCOI projects funded by the European Refugee Fund (ERF) and by the European Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). Currently the MedCOI services are gradually taken over by EASO. The transfer of the MedCOI services started in 2017 and from 2021 it is envisaged that EASO will deliver all MedCOI services as a part of its normal operations.

Integrated overall quality control/assurance is inherent part of EASO MEDCOI services. MedCOI quality control/assurance consists of two major blocks that in this tender are described in two separate lots: Lot 1 and Lot 2. Furthermore, Lot 3 concerns analysis of state practices and case law related to MedCOI.

LOT 1 concerns verification research in countries of origin and verification reports of two types of underlying reports made by EASO MedCOI Sector:

• individual medical availability requests/answers: short strictly medical reports (in most of the cases 1 to 5 pages) about medical treatment and medication options in a specific country for a specific individual case;
• Individual accessibility requests/answers: short reports (in most of the cases 1 to 5 pages) about mainly economic access to specific treatments and medication options in a specific country; e.g. prices of medication, treatments and coverage options for a specific individual case.

LOT 2 concerns satisfaction surveys and interviews (and related reports with results) with users and staff of MedCOI and reviewing existing internal and external quality related measures.

LOT 3 concerns research and reports on the state practices and jurisprudence/case law related to MedCOI.

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