Provision of Legal Services

Item Description:

Europol is the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, which supports its Member States in preventing and combating all forms of international serious organised crime, cybercrime and terrorism. Europol’s vision is to contribute to a safer Europe by providing the best possible support to law enforcement authorities in the Member States.

Europol is planning to award the contract(s) resulting from the above procurement procedure. The procurement documents of the procedure consist of the following: the contract notice; the Invitation to Tender & Tender Specifications including all annexes and forms. All the above documentation is available in the attached ZIP File.

Objectives of this framework contract

The objectives of this framework contract are to be able to acquire a wide range of legal services in the following areas:

Lot 1 – commercial law – including contract, ICT/IP law, privacy and data protection, tax law and possible court representation or alternative dispute resolution mechanism.

Lot 1: Europol’s contracts are generally governed by the Union law complemented, where necessary, by Dutch law. The courts of The Hague have jurisdiction over disputes arising from the interpretation and/or application of these contracts. Europol has no in-house Dutch qualified lawyer therefore legal advice on Dutch commercial law matters is occasionally required. Europol also has contracts subject to another EU MS law – typically (but not exclusively) Belgian law for contracts concluded on an inter-institutional basis with the European Commission. Advice may also concern matters related to debt recovery, technology and software contracts and their interpretation as well as issues of privacy and data protection.

Lot 2 – Dutch employment and labour law – including taxation, pension and benefits and health and safety law.

Lot 2: legal advice on Dutch employment and labour law matters including Dutch law implementation of EU directives (on transfers of undertakings or posted workers for example) pension and benefits, social security and tax law. Europol applies the health and safety standards of The Netherlands.

Lot 3 – EU procurement law – including advice, possible representation before the Court of Justice of the EU.

Lot 3: drafting or review of defences as well as advice on procurement law and litigation strategy is expected in relation to legal challenges alleging breach(es) of procurement law or related administrative law (NB Europol is subject to the European regime which differs in some respects from the directives applicable in member states).

Lot 4 – EU employment and civil service law – including advice and representation before the Court of Justice of the EU.

Lot 4: EU employment and civil service law advice and litigation: Europol employs Temporary agents (TA) and Contract agents (CA) under the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union (EUSR) and Conditions of Employment of other servants of the European Union (CEOS). The Court of Justice of the EU has jurisdiction over disputes between (existing and former) staff members and Europol. Europol has legal expertise in-house and wishes to have the possibility – but not the obligation – to call on the services of a law firm using a framework contract, which might result from this tender procedure. It is envisaged that such services will be mainly required in Court proceedings; however requests for other legal advice in this area are also possible.

Lot 5 – public international and European law – including advice and representation before the Court of Justice of the EU on international and interstate (police) cooperation, data protection, data security and information processing matters.

Lot 5: this lot is related to provision of legal advice in matters of international public law with focus on international (police/justice and home affairs) cooperation, data protection, data security and information processing, and/or liability cases concerning state/institutional actors. Europol has in-house specialists in these matters. Legal services under this lot will be required especially – but not exclusively – in litigation contexts, i.e. actions for damages in the case of non-contractual liability (Art. 49 (3) and (4), Art. 50 of the Europol Regulation and Art. 340, 268 TFEU), actions for annulment (Art. 263 1st and 4th sub-paragraph TFEU) or actions for failure to act (Art. 265 3rd sub-paragraph TFEU). Services may further include legal advice related to the possible interference and interplay between Europol’s own legal framework/obligations with the national law of EU member states.

Download all available documents in: [ZIP]