SERVICE PROCUREMENT NOTICE

Contract title: information and communication campaign support in the ENPI countries and territories
Location – ENPI beneficiary countries and territories

1. Publication reference

 EuropeAid/126683/C/SER/R03

2. Procedure

Restricted

3. Programme

European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI).

4. Financing

European Neighbourhood and Partnership (ENP) financial cooperation with Mediterranean countries (budget line 19.080101)

European Neighbourhood and Partnership (ENP) financial cooperation with Eastern Europe
(budget line 19.080103)

5. Contracting Authority

The European Community, represented by the European Commission on behalf of and for the account of the beneficiary countries and territories

CONTRACT SPECIFICATION

6. Nature of contract

Fee-based

7. Contract description

The contractor is expected to assist the European Commission (Headquarters and EC Delegations) to prepare and implement information and communication campaigns in the ENPI countries and territories during the next 3 years.

The contractor should

- provide strategic, analytical and operational support to the communications activities of the European Commission and its Delegations in the ENPI countries and territories,

- monitor and analyse the EU media coverage in the ENPI countries and territories.

- In co-operation with the European Commission (Headquarters and Delegations), produce and distribute communication and information/ journalistic material and launch information campaigns on the basis of field work in the different ENPI countries and territories.

8. Number and titles of lots

NA

9. Maximum budget

EUR 5,5 Mio

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 legal persons which are established in a Member State of the European Union or in a country or territory covered by the ENPI instrument (see also item 30 below), i.e. Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Russian Federation, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine. Participation is also open to international organisations.

12. Candidature

All eligible 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 (ie, the leader and all other members) are jointly and severally liable to the Contracting Authority.

The participation of an ineligible 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 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 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. 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 2.3.3 of the Practical Guide to contract procedures for EC external actions.

16. Sub-contracting

Sub-contracting is allowed up to a maximum of 35 % of the contract value.

17. Number of candidates to be short-listed

On the basis of the applications received, between 4-8 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

August 2008

19. Provisional commencement date of the contract

November 2008

20. Initial period of execution and possible extension of the contract

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)

the average annual turnover of the candidate must exceed 3,000,000 € in the past three years (2005, 2006, 2007 and 2007 being "this year"). In case of a Consortium, the leader should exceed 1,000,000 € in the past three years (2005, 2006, 2007).

2) Professional capacity of candidate (based on items 4 and 5 of the application form)

the candidate is able to prove that at least 10 full time permanent staff are working in the field of journalism and media campaign activities.

3) Technical capacity of candidate (based on items 5 and 6 of the application form)

(a) the candidate has worked on at least three international projects, with a budget of a value of at least 1 M € each, in field of journalism and/or information campaign in the past five years (from 2003 onwards).

The candidate's participation in these projects (i.e. by one or more of its members) must be significant, i.e. of a proportion of at least 50 %.

(b) the candidate has designed and implemented at least 5 information and communication campaign strategies, of which at least one on behalf of an International Organization and at least 3 implemented in the ENPI countries and territories.

(c) the candidate has designed and implemented at least 3 media monitoring and analysis activities of which at least one in the ENPI countries

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 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 applications for the tender procedure. The only factors which will be taken into consideration during this re-examination are:

1) Level of experience and presence in the ENPI geographical area

2) Relevant experience in the field

22. Award criteria

As specified in the tender dossier annexed to the letter of invitation to tender which will be sent to the short-listed candidates.

APPLICATION

23. Deadline for receipt of applications

25 July 2008 at 16:00 Central European Time

Any application received after this deadline will not be considered.

24. Application format and details to be provided

Applications must be submitted using the standard application form (available from the following Internet address: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/procedures/index_en.htm), whose format and instructions must be strictly observed.

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:

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

European Commission

EuropeAid Co-operation Office

Finance, Contracts and Audit Unit EuropeAid A/5

EuropeAid/126683/C/SER/Multi

J-54, 01/237

B-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 du Courrier Central

EuropeAid Co-operation Office

Finance, Contracts and Audit Unit EuropeAid A/5

EuropeAid/126683/C/SER/Multi

J-54, 01/237

Avenue de Bourget, 3

B-1140 Brussels, Belgium

Tel.: +32.2.299.57.14

N.B.: This department is open from 08:00 to 17:00 from Monday to Thursday and from 08:00 to 16:00 on Friday; it is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and Commission holidays.

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 tenders. No application may be altered after this deadline.

Any such notification of alteration or withdrawal shall be prepared and submitted in accordance with Clause 25. The outer envelope (and the relevant inner envelope) 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. Additional information

The activities should be closely coordinated with the EC Delegations and the EC services in Headquarters.

29. Date of publication of contract forecast

19/02/2008

30. Legal basis

European Neighbourhood and Partnership instrument (Regulation (EC) N° 1638/2006 of the EP and of the Council - OJ L 310/1 of 9.11.2006)