Article 73 · European preference requirements

1.Public buyers may:

(a)restrict participation only to economic operators and subcontractors originating in the Union and those that are covered, or, in the case of groups of economic operators, or any other form of joint participation, to groups which are either composed solely of Union or covered economic operators or to groups where the majority, but not all members of the group are Union or covered economic operators;

(b)reject a tender in the course of a procedure where it is not submitted by Union or covered economic operators or groups, including their subcontractors, thereof as referred to in point (a).

2.Public buyers may do one or more of the following:

(a)require that the goods, services and works offered originate in the Union or be covered goods, services or works, either fully, or to a certain degree, or for specific components that participate in the competitive relationship with the procured goods, services or works;

(b)solely for the purposes of evaluation and ranking of tenders in the award phase without affecting the price payable under the contract, apply a percentage reduction to the price of the tender or the allocation of additional award points, where:

(i)the tender is submitted only by Union or covered economic operators and subcontractors or, in the case of groups of economic operators, or any other form of joint participation, to groups composed solely of such operators or to groups where most, but not all members of the group are Union or covered economic operators; or

(ii)the tender contains a higher proportion of Union or covered goods, services or works, in comparison with the other submitted tenders;

(c)reject a tender where the value of Union or covered goods, services or works contained in the tender is below 50 % of the total estimated value of the tender.

3.The measures referred to in paragraph 2 may only be applied if they have been clearly stated by the public buyer in the competition public summary. The competition public summary shall specify the goods, services or works required to be of Union or covered origin, well as the percentage of reduction or award points allocation, together with the corresponding value that the public buyer will apply for the evaluation and ranking of tenders in the award phase.

4.Public buyers shall notify the national coordinating authority designated pursuant to Article 138 of any indications of circumvention of measures taken pursuant to this Article. The national coordinating authority shall inform the Commission of any systemic flaws identified on the basis of theses notifications.