DIRECTORATE-GENERAL
REGIONAL POLICY
Policy development
Evaluation
Brussels,
REGIO.C.4./KS D(2010) 680219
Dear Sir/Madam,
Subject: Call for tenders by open procedure n° 2010.CE.16.B.AT.041 – Expert Evaluation Network delivering Policy Analysis
1. I enclose the call for tenders relating to the above mentioned contract.
2. If you are interested in this contract, you should submit a tender in triplicate in one of the official languages of the European Union.
3. Bids must be submitted
a) either by post or by courier not later than 04/10/2010, in which case the evidence of the date of dispatch shall be constituted by the postmark or the date of the deposit slip, to the following address:
European Commission
DirectorateGeneral for Regional Policy,
Evaluation Unit,
CSM 1 – 4/123
B – 1049 Brussels
b) or delivered by hand to the following address:
European Commission
DirectorateGeneral for Regional Policy,
Evaluation Unit,
CSM 1 – 4/123
Exact address :
avenue du Bourget, 1
B-1140 Brussels (Evere)
Belgium
not later than the end of working hours on 04/10/2010. In this case, a receipt must be obtained as proof of submission, signed and dated by the official in the Commission’s central mail department who took delivery. The department is open from 08.00 to 17.00 Monday to Thursday, and from 8.00 to 16.00 on Fridays. It is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and Commission holidays.
4. Tenders must be placed inside two sealed envelopes. The inner envelope, addressed to the department indicated in the invitation to tender, should be marked as follows: “Invitation to tender n° 2010.CE.16.B.AT.041 - not to be opened by the internal mail department”. If self-adhesive envelopes are used, they must be sealed with adhesive tape and the sender must sign across this tape.
The inner envelope must also contain two sealed envelopes, one containing the technical specifications (on paper plus a CD or DVD with a copy of those documents in electronic format -word or pdf-format) and the other the financial bid. Each of these envelopes must clearly indicate the content (“Technical” and “Financial”).
5. The specification, listing all the documents that must be produced in order to tender, including supporting evidence of economic, financial, technical and professional capacity and the draft contract are attached.
6. Tenders must be:
- signed by the tenderer or his duly authorised representative;
- perfectly legible so that there can be no doubt as to words and figures.
7. Period of validity of the tender, during which the tenderer may not modify the terms of his tender in any respect: 6 months from the date it was submitted.
8. Submission of a tender implies acceptance of all the terms and conditions set out in this invitation to tender, in the specification and in the draft contract and, where appropriate, waiver of the tenderer’s own general or specific terms and conditions. It is binding on the tenderer to whom the contract is awarded for the duration of the contract.
9. Contacts between the contracting department and tenderers are prohibited throughout the procedure save in exceptional circumstances and under the following conditions only:
Before the final date for submission of tenders:
At the request of the tenderer, the contracting department may provide additional information solely for the purpose of clarifying the nature of the contract.
Any requests for additional information must be made in writing only to the attention of the Evaluation Unit, .
Requests for additional information received less than five working days before the closing date for submission of tenders will not be processed.
The Commission may, on its own initiative, inform interested parties of any error, inaccuracy, omission or any other clerical error in the text of the call for tenders.
Any additional information including that referred to above will be sent simultaneously to all tenderers who have requested the specification and will be published at the internet address below.
Tendering documents are available on the website of Directorate General for Regional Policy at the following address: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/tender/tender_en.htm (including any additional information referred to above).
Potential tenderers are requested to regularly verify the internet website.
After the opening of tenders
If clarification is required or if obvious clerical errors in the tender need to be corrected, the contracting department may contact the tenderer provided the terms of the tender are not modified as a result.
10. This invitation to tender is in no way binding the Commission. The Commission’s contractual obligation commences only upon signature of the contract with the successful tenderer.
Up to the point of signature, the contracting authority may either abandon the procurement or cancel the award procedure, without the candidates or tenderers being entitled to claim any compensation. This decision must be substantiated and the candidates or tenderers notified.
11. You will be informed whether or not your tender has been accepted.
12. If your offer includes subcontracting, it is recommended that contractual arrangements with subcontractors include mediation as a method of dispute resolution.
13. If processing your reply to the invitation to tender involves the recording and processing of personal data (such as your name, address and CV), such data will be processed pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data. Unless indicated otherwise, your replies to the questions and any personal data requested are required to evaluate your tender in accordance with the specifications of the invitation to tender and will be processed solely for that purpose by Ms Veronica Gaffey, Head of Evaluation Unit, Directorate General for Regional Policy, e-mail: .
Details concerning processing of your personal data are available on the privacy statement at the page http://ec.europa.eu/dataprotectionofficer/privacystatement_publicprocurement_en.pdf.
14. You are informed that for the purposes of safeguarding the financial interest of the Union, your personal data may be transferred to internal audit services, to the Court of Auditors, to the Financial Irregularities Panel and/or to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).
Data of economic operators which are in one of the situations referred to in Articles 93, 94, 96(1)(b) and 96(2)(a) of the Financial Regulation[1] may be included in a central database and communicated to the designated persons of the Commission, other institutions, agencies, authorities and bodies mentioned in Article 95(1) and (2) of the Financial Regulation. This refers as well to the persons with powers of representation, decision making or control over the said economic operators. Any party entered into the database has the right to be informed of the data concerning it, up on request to the accounting officer of the Commission.
Natalija Kazlauskienė
Director
Expert Evaluation Network delivering Policy Analysis
Terms of Reference
1. Title of Contract
The full title of the contract is "Expert Evaluation Network delivering Policy Analysis on the Performance of Cohesion Policy 2007-2013".
2. Overall Purpose and Context of Contract
The European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional Policy, is responsible for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund, which together during the 2007-2013 period will invest EUR268billion in the development of regions across 27Member States, through 330programmes under 3objectives: Convergence, Regional Competitiveness Employment and European Territorial Co-Operation.
While evaluation responsibilities are shared between the European Commission and the Member States, the Directorate-General for Regional Policy is accountable to the European Parliament and the European public at large for the resources spent. This increasingly includes an emphasis on the effects of Cohesion Policy: What was achieved as a result of the resources invested? What worked? What didn't? Why? What was the relative effectiveness of different interventions and why? What works in different contexts and why?
Member States are responsible for the ex-ante and ongoing evaluation of their programmes. Under the current regulations, Member States and regions, while not obliged, are encouraged to design their own plans for evaluation, deciding what to evaluate and when, according to their needs. At this stage, in mid 2010, evaluations are now taking place in most Member States. The amount and variety of evaluations will increase over time. New methods are also being tested in the context of the move away from only programme-wide evaluations (e.g., counterfactual impact evaluation, ex-post cost benefit analysis, more rigorous "realistic evaluation", etc.). The Commission wishes to encourage this development and highlight examples of good practice.
In this context, a key challenge for the Directorate-General for Regional Policy is to gather and synthesise where possible the results of evaluations and other policy analysis undertaken in the Member States. Such aggregation and synthesis is necessary to feed the policy debate on the performance of Cohesion Policy. A further objective is to highlight good practices in evaluation and encourage their wider use across the EU.
The Directorate-General for Regional Policy has therefore decided to launch an expert evaluation network, tasked to examine and synthesise evaluation results and undertake policy analysis at Member State level and then synthesise these to the EU level. A first contract covered the results of 2010.
The analysis produced by the expert network will be discussed with the Member States.
3. Subject of Contract
The objective of this contract is to establish an expert evaluation network which will deliver policy analysis and evidence on the performance of Cohesion Policy programmes, based on the monitoring and evaluation work underway in the Member States, analysing these results in the context of available statistical and policy research available.
This will be done through one contract with a lead contractor who will mobilise, co-ordinate and synthesise the work of the network. The lead contractor will sub-contract national experts.
The network will work in the years 2011-2013. Directorate-Regional for Policy will conclude a one year contract for 2011 that can be renewed twice by one year if the Directorate-General is satisfied by the quality of work delivered by the network.
3.1. Scope
The scope of this contract is the 316 Convergence, Regional Competitiveness and Employment, and European Territorial Co-Operation Objectives (cross border strand) across the 27 Member States of the European Union which are co-financed by the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund. The focus will be on evaluations undertaken by Managing Authorities and other research available within the Member States, programming documents and annual implementation reports, information held on the information systems of the Directorate-General for Regional Policy on financial and physical performance and statistical data available from Eurostat and other statistical sources.
3.2. Tasks
There are four tasks to be undertaken under this contract.
Task 1 – Thematic Policy Papers
For 2011, to co-ordinate the production of 27 policy papers (one for each country) on the topics of renewable energy and energy efficiency of residential housing and to produce a synthesis report.[2]
Literature review: The lead contractor will carry out a preparatory literature review on the following questions:
- Typical electricity prices and profitability rates for main types of renewable energies (water, wind, solar thermal and photo voltaic, bio fuel), differentiated by geographic aspects, and their development trends. Comparison to price of electricity produced from fossil energy sources.
- Financial, regulatory and institutional hurdles for improving the energy efficiency of residential housing.
The lead contractor will present basic statistic information for the theme under consideration such as share of renewable energy in primary energy consumption and electricity consumption, both at EU and Member State level.
The policy papers should answer the following questions:
- What are the main measures to promote renewable energies in ERDF programmes? What are the main features of national policies of Member States to promote renewable energies? What is the relative importance of the ERDF investment in this field? Is there a difference, complementarity or overlap of instruments between ERDF measures and national measures?
- What are the main measures to promote energy efficiency of residential housing in ERDF programmes? What are the main features of national policies of Member States to promote energy efficiency in residential housing? What is the relative importance of the ERDF? Is there a difference of instruments between ERDF measures and national measures?
- For points 1 and 2: Do the ERDF programmes or their implementing instruments state a clear rationale for public intervention? Do Member States vary the rate of support depending on the profitability of supported measures (or potential for self-financing in the case of better energy efficiency of residential housing)?
It is anticipated that the relative importance of questions 1 and 2 will be different across Member States.
In addition to screening ERDF programmes, experts will use secondary literature to answer these questions and to validate findings by interviews with some few stakeholders and policymakers.
The synthesis report should collate and compare the results of the policy papers and in particular reflect on the findings in light of the different contexts involved.
The policy papers should be on average 10 pages long, while the synthesis report should contain a maximum of 40 pages.
The tender documentation should include a draft template for the policy papers and a description of the approach of the co-ordinating contractor to co-ordinate and quality assure the work. Draft annotated contents of the synthesis report should also be included in the tender, highlighting the important elements to be drawn out in the synthesis.
For 2012 and 2013, themes will be decided by the Commission in due course. Format and work volume will be similar. Examples of possible further themes are rural/urban/local development, climate change, financial engineering or major projects.
Task 2 – Country Reports on Achievements of Cohesion Policy
For each of the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, to co-ordinate the production of 27 country reports which should cover the following topics:
- A synthesis and analysis of information on progress, achievements and changes of EU regional policy in the Member States. The synthesis and analysis will use the qualitative information in Annual Implementation Reports 2010 (2011, 2012) and quantitative information on financial and physical performance (outputs, results and impacts achieved). Reasons for variances compared to targets will be discussed drawing on commentary in the reports. Evaluations analysed under point 3 can deliver additional information.
The attention of tenderers is drawn to the fact that the number and volume of Operational Programmes varies considerably across Member States. This will affect the organisational and analytical approach to individual Member States.