New EU Procurement Thresholds

 The new EU Procurement Thresholds  have been released for the period January 2012 to 31 December 2013. This biennial event adjusts these thresholds for changes in the Euro denominated limits and their conversion into sterling and other non-euro based currencies. The details can be found here. Whilst many will be concerned about the precise level of these arbitrary hurdles, it should not drive procurement behaviour The determination of whether the prospective contract value is above or below threshold is a by its very nature a judgement about future events and ultimately a guess? Therefore one should allow some margin of error in its assessment in order to avoid an inadvertent breach of the regulations.
The requirements of the Directives promote sound procurement practices. Whilst the imposition of mandatory timescales and the standstill period may be seen by some to add a level of bureaucracy, it is necessary  from a regulatory perspective. If your processes are robust, then this is only a small imposition.
Therefore to the true professional, these changes although important, should be of passing interest. There is one change however that will be of significant concern to some. In recognition of the financial crisis in 2008 the EU Commission allowed a relaxation on the circumstances under which the Accelerated Procedure could be utilised. This drastically reduced the mandatory timescales of procedures. This relaxation is no longer available.
We believe some organisations have come to rely on these shortened time frames and will have not factored in the fact that these were only temporary measures. Naturally, we do not expect our readers to be amongst the organisations not alert tto the removal of the relaxation!