Provision of Project Management and Other Related Services for the IT Activities of the Publications Office

Item Description:

The Publications Office of the European Union, hereinafter referred to as “the Publications Office”
(2, rue Mercier, 2985 Luxembourg, LUXEMBOURG) is the publishing house of the European institutions in the broadest sense, responsible for publishing and distributing, in all media and by all means, all the publications of the European Union. The Publications Office, whose current organisation and operation are laid down by Decision 2009/496/EC, Euratom (Official Journal of the European Union, L168, 30.06.2009, pp. 41-47, as amended), is managed by a Management Committee, on which each institution is represented by its Secretary-General. The Publications Office is administratively attached to the European Commission (“the contracting authority”). More information can be found on the Publications Office’s website: https://op.europa.eu.

As a publisher, the Publications Office has a duty to offer the highest quality of service to its Publications Offices (the originating departments of the institutions and other bodies of the European Union), and to its public (the people of the European Union and those throughout the world who are interested in European affairs). In the field of new technologies, the Publications Office must place itself in the forefront of the publishing profession.

Under the provisions of the Treaty on the European Union, the publication of certain titles, such as the Official Journal of the European Union or the General Report on the Activities of the European Union, is a legal obligation.

Nature of the contract

The contract is a multiple framework service contract in cascade with reopening of competition (“FWC”) entitled: Provision of project management and other related services for the IT activities of the Publications Office.

As exact implementing conditions, quantities and/or delivery times cannot be indicated in advance, the contracting authority intends to conclude a 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 FWC do not give rise to any direct obligation on the part of the contracting authority; it is only its 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 five (5) 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 the evaluation of tenderers, the successful tenderers will be listed as contractors qualified to appoint and employ professionals that will provide the services described in the FWC.

The FWC shall be executed in two alternative modes: (i) cascade mechanism, where the contractor placed in the first position of the cascade shall have the priority to receiving the orders; (ii) reopening of competition including all qualified contractors indicated in the list, on an equal standing basis.

In the cascade mechanism (i), the contractors are ranked in descending order, according to tender results obtained in the present call for tenders, in view to establishing a priority that will determine from which contractor the Publications Office will order services. The contractor placed in the first position of the cascade shall have the priority, and the Publications Office may order services from the second contractor in the cascade only if the higher ranked contractor fails to fulfil its obligations or is not in a position to provide the services. The subsequent contractors in the cascade will be ordered to provide the services only if the upper ranked contractors fail to fulfil their obligations or are not in a position to provide the services.

The Publications Office shall reopen the competition (ii) between all contractors only in the event of tasks requiring specific profiles of Technical Consultant (TEC-CONS).

The complete provisions ruling the cascade mechanism (i) and reopening of competition (ii) can be found in point 4.5 – Execution of the FWC.

Value of the FWC

The estimated value of the FWC is EUR 15,000,000. Following the tendering procedure, this amount will be awarded for the execution of the FWC.

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