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Service for Foreign Policy Instruments
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Advancing EU's role in multilateral fora in Asia

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Status
Closed
Publication date
Deadline date
Opening of tenders
Department
Service for Foreign Policy Instruments

Description

SERVICE CONTRACT NOTICE

Advancing the EU's role in multilateral fora in Asia
Location – Asia

1. Publication reference

EuropeAid/137456/DH/SER/MULTI

2. Procedure

Restricted

3. Programme title

Advancing the EU's role in multilateral fora in Asia

4. Financing

Partnership Instrument - Annual Action Programme (AAP) 2015 - PI/2015/038-434

5. Contracting Authority

European Union, represented by the European Commission

CONTRACT SPECIFICATION

6. Nature of contract

Fee-based

7. Contract description

The aim of the project is to promote EU security, political and economic interests by strengthening the EU's engagement in different multilateral fora in Asia. These objectives will be pursued by targeting ASEAN1, ARF2 and ASEM3 with a package of actions including, but not limited to dialogues at different levels, trainings, technical assistance, political and media campaigns, studies, publications and visibility materials, as well as high profile conferences with partner organisations/countries in order to sensitise them to EU goals and contributions to multilateral fora in Asia.

8. Number and titles of lots

One lot only

9. Maximum budget

EUR 4,280,000

10. Scope for additional services

The Contracting Authority may, at its own discretion, extend the project in duration and/or scope subject to the availability of funding up to a maximum not exceeding the length and value of the initial contract. Any extension of the contract would be subject to satisfactory performance by the Contractor.

CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION

11. Eligibility

Participation is open to all natural persons who are nationals or/and legal persons (participating either individually or in a grouping -consortium- of tenderers) effectively established in a Member State of the European Union or in an eligible country or territory as defined under Regulation (EU) N°236/2014 establishing common rules and procedures for the implementation of the Union's instruments for external action (CIR) for the applicable Instrument under which the contract is financed (see also heading 29 below). Participation is also open to international organisations.

12. Candidature

All eligible natural and legal persons (as per item 11 above) or groupings of such persons (consortia) may apply.

A consortium may be a permanent, legally-established grouping or a grouping which has been constituted informally for a specific tender procedure. All members of a consortium (i.e., the leader and all other members) are jointly and severally liable to the Contracting Authority.

The participation of an ineligible natural or legal person (as per item 11) will result in the automatic exclusion of that person. In particular, if that ineligible person belongs to a consortium, the whole consortium will be excluded.

13. Number of applications

No more than one application can be submitted by a natural or legal person whatever the form of participation (as an individual legal entity or as leader or member of a consortium submitting an application). In the event that a natural or legal person submits more than one application, all applications in which that person has participated will be excluded.

14. Shortlist alliances prohibited

Any tenders received from tenderers comprising firms other than those mentioned in the short-listed application forms will be excluded from this restricted tender procedure unless prior approval from the Contracting Authority has been obtained (see Practical Guide – PRAG- 2.4.3.). Short-listed candidates may not form alliances or subcontract to each other for the contract in question.

15. Grounds for exclusion

As part of the application form, candidates must submit a signed declaration, included in the standard application form, to the effect that they are not in any of the exclusion situations listed in Section 2.3.2 of the PRAG.

16. Sub-contracting

Subcontracting is allowed.

17. Number of candidates to be short-listed

On the basis of the applications received, between 4 and 8 candidates will be invited to submit detailed tenders for this contract. If the number of eligible candidates meeting the selection criteria is less than the minimum of 4, the Contracting Authority may invite the candidates who satisfy the criteria to submit a tender.

PROVISIONAL TIMETABLE

18. Provisional date of invitation to tender

01/02/2016

19. Provisional commencement date of the contract

01/05/2016

20. Initial period of implementation of tasks

36 months

SELECTION AND AWARD CRITERIA

21. Selection criteria

The following selection criteria will be applied to candidates. In the case of applications submitted by a consortium, these selection criteria will be applied to the consortium as a whole:

1. Economic and financial capacity of candidate (based on item 3 of the application form). In case of candidate being a public body, equivalent information should be provided.

a) The average annual turnover of the candidate in the last three years for which accounts have been closed must exceed EUR 1,560,000, and

b) Current ratio (current assets/current liabilities) in the last year for which accounts have been closed must be at least 1. In case of a consortium this criterion must be fulfilled by each member.

2.Professional capacity of candidate (based on items 4 and 5 of the application form). The reference period which will be taken into account will be the last three years from submission deadline.

a) At least 15 staff currently work for the candidate in at least one of the fields related to this contract ((i) organization of conferences, workshops and events; (ii) provision of technical assistance; (iii) communication and visibility/public diplomacy; (iv) conduction of studies in different fields: trade, environment, civil society, foreign policy, security related aspects, climate change, fight against organised crime, natural resources, biodiversity, water management, raw materials, energy, research, development and innovation, migration and mobility, connectivity, transport, maritime policy, governance, human rights and democracy, disaster management, sustainable and green growth) of which minimum 5 should be permanently employed.

3. Technical capacity of candidate (based on items 5 and 6 of the application form). The reference period which will be taken into account will be the last three years from submission deadline.

a) The candidate has provided services on at least 4 projects with a budget of at least that of this contract in at least one of the fields related to this contract (see criterion 21.2.a)(i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) above). The portion carried out by the candidate in each project must represent a budget of at least EUR 2,000,000.

b) The candidate has provided services on at least 4 projects, altogether covering at least two of the ASEAN, ARF or ASEM countries listed in heading 7 "Contract description", footnotes 1, 2 and 3.

Previous experience which caused breach of contract and termination by a Contracting Authority shall not be used as reference.

An economic operator may, where appropriate and for a particular contract, rely on the capacities of other entities, regardless of the legal nature of the links which it has with them. It must in that case prove to the Contracting Authority that it will have at its disposal the resources necessary for performance of the contract, for example by producing an undertaking on the part of those entities to place those resources at its disposal. Such entities, for instance the parent company of the economic operator, must respect the same rules of eligibility and notably that of nationality, as the economic operator.

If more than 8 eligible candidates meet the above selection criteria, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the applications of these candidates must be reexamined to identify the eight best candidates. The only factors which will be taken into consideration during this re-examination are:

  • The highest number of projects found eligible under criterion 21.3(a); then
  • The highest total value of the eligible portions carried out by the candidate of the projects found eligible under criterion 21.3(a).

22. Award criteria

Best value for money.

APPLICATION

23. Deadline for receipt of applications

17:00 Central European Time on 08/01/2016. Any application received by the Contracting Authority after this deadline will not be considered.

24. Application format and details to be provided

Applications must be submitted using the standard application form, the format and instructions of which must be strictly observed. The application form is available from the following Internet address: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/prag/annexes.do?chapterTitleCode=B

Any additional documentation (brochure, letter, etc) sent with an application will not be taken into consideration.

25. How applications may be submitted

Applications must be submitted in English exclusively to the Contracting Authority in a sealed envelope:

  • EITHER by recorded delivery (official postal service) to :

    European Commission
    Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI4)
    200, rue de la Loi
    1049 Brussels, Belgium

  • OR hand delivered (including courier services) directly to the Contracting Authority in return for a signed and dated receipt to:

    European Commission
    Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI.4)

    For the attention of Genoveva RUIZ CALAVERA
    Avenue de Bourget 1
    1140 Brussels, BELGIUM

The Contract title and the Publication reference (see item 1 above) must be clearly marked on the envelope containing the application and must always be mentioned in all subsequent correspondence with the Contracting Authority.

Applications submitted by any other means will not be considered.

26. Alteration or withdrawal of applications

Candidates may alter or withdraw their applications by written notification prior to the deadline for submission of applications. No application may be altered after this deadline. Any such notification of alteration or withdrawal shall be prepared and submitted in accordance with Item 25. The outer envelope (and the relevant inner envelope if used) must be marked 'Alteration' or 'Withdrawal' as appropriate.

27. Operational language

All written communications for this tender procedure and contract must be in: English.

28. Date of publication of prior information notice

19/08/2015

29. Legal basis4

Regulation (EU) N°236/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2014 laying down common rules and procedures for the implementation of the Union's instruments for financing external action and (EU) No 234/2014 of 11 March 2014 establishing a Partnership Instrument for cooperation with third countries. - See Annex A2 of the Practical Guide.

30. Additional information

Questions, clearly stating the reference and title of the call, can be sent to the following email address: FPI-4-GRANTS-TENDERSatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (FPI-4-GRANTS-TENDERS[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu).

***

1 Southeast Asian Nations: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
2 ASEAN Regional Forum: Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, United States and Vietnam.
3 Asia-Europe Meeting: ASEAN Secretariat, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lao PDR, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom and Vietnam.
4 Please state any specificity that might have an impact on rules on participation (such as geographic or thematic or
long/short term).