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Service for Foreign Policy Instruments
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EU-Australia Leadership Forum

Details

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

Description

1. Publication reference

EuropeAid/137418/DH/SER/Multi

2. Procedure

Restricted

3. Programme title

EU-Australia Leadership Forum

4. Financing

Partnership Instrument - 2015 Annual Action Programme (ref. C/2015/4109 of 22.06.2015)

5. Contracting Authority

European Union, represented by the European Commission

CONTRACT SPECIFICATION

6. Nature of contract

Fee-based

7. Contract description

The overall objective of the contract is to deepen and broaden the EU-Australia (EU-AUS) partnership using the EU-AUS Framework Agreement as a reference point and to ensure that other opportunities for engagement are further expanded, including the broadening of the political, research and innovation, economic and trade investment relationship. The purpose of the contract will be twofold: (1) to raise the profile and the importance of the EU-AUS relationship across all sectors of Government, Parliament, business, civil society, academia and media; (2) to effectively influence the agenda-setting of the official EU-AUS relationship as well as of selected Senior Official Dialogues through ideas and informed input generated by the Senior Leaders Forum/Emerging Leaders Forum (SLF/ELF) and by the Sectoral Expert Policy Workshops.

SLF/ELF (there will be two SLF and two ELF) will be high-level (in case of SLF) conferences which will constitute the main components of the project and will gather selected high profile leaders as well as emerging young leaders from government and parliament, business, media, academia and the civil society. In addition, service provider will provide intellectual input on the various actual and possible fields of cooperation between the EU and Australia throughout the whole contract duration.

The project will include development and implementation of a media strategy (encompassing the entirety of the EU-AUS relationship) throughout its whole duration. Sectoral Expert Policy Workshops will be organized to provide inputs to the established political, strategic and sectoral EU-AUS dialogues. Finally, the project will establish inter alia a database, webpage and alumni group as well as draft publications on relations between Australia and the EU.

8. Number and titles of lots

One lot only

9. Maximum budget

EUR 2,000,000

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 of and legal persons (participating either individually or in a grouping – consortium - of tenderers) which are effectively established in a Member State of the European Union or in a eligible country or territory as defined under the 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

18/12/2015

19. Provisional commencement date of the contract

01/04/2016

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.
Criteria for legal and natural persons:

  1. The average annual turnover of the candidate must exceed EUR 667,000 in the last three years for which accounts have been closed;
  2. 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.

Criteria for legal and natural persons:

  • The Candidate has at least 8 staff currently working in the fields related to this contract (international cooperation, diplomatic relationship , public diplomacy, organisation of international public events, media and communication) of which minimum of 3 must 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.

Criteria for legal and natural persons:

The candidate has provided, in the last three years from submission deadline, services under:

  • a) At least 2 projects with the candidate's portion carried out in each project representing a budget of at least EUR 1,000,000 in Technical Assistance in at least one of the following fields: international cooperation, diplomatic relationship, public diplomacy, organisation of international public events with participation of representatives from at least two of the following sectors: government, parliament, business, academia, civil society, media.
  • b) At least 1 project with the candidate's portion carried out representing a budget of at least EUR 300,000 in Media and communication, including design and implementation of media strategies

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 total number of reference projects found eligible under 21.3(a); and in case of equality on this criterion, then
  • The value of the eligible part (the portion carried out by the candidate) of the projects found eligible under 21.3(a)

22. Award criteria

Best value for money.

APPLICATION

23. Deadline for receipt of applications

17:00 Central European Time on 02/12/2015

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 (FPI 4)
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

11/08/2015

29. Legal basis

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 Regulation (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).