Article 29
1. Contracts for the purchase or hiring of goods or for the provision of services shall be in writing. 2. All such contracts for which the estimated value equals or exceeds the thresholds set out in Council Directive 93/36/EEC of 14 June 1993 coordinating procedures for the award of public supply contracts(4) or Council Directive 92/50/EEC of 18 June 1992 relating to the coordination of procedures for the award of public service contracts(5) shall be concluded after an invitation to tender has been issued in accordance with the provisions of those Directives, including any further amendments which may be agreed to them (hereinafter the "Council Directives on public procurement procedures"). 3. Contracts for which the estimated value of the contract in question does not exceed the thresholds set out in the Council Directives on public procurement procedures may be made by private treaty. In such cases, the Member States referred to in Article 25 shall none the less be bound, as far as possible and by all appropriate means, to enable suppliers who are likely to be able to supply the goods and services in question to compete. 4. Invitations to tender shall, as a general rule, be published by the General Secretariat of the Council on behalf of the Member States referred to in Article 25 in all the Member States. 5. The tendering procedures and selection and award criteria shall be determined and governed by the provisions of the Council Directives on public procurement procedures, as supplemented by the provisions of this Financial Regulation. 6. Every invitation to tender shall be prepared by the General Secretariat of the Council on behalf of the Member States referred to in Article 25 and shall, in particular: (a) specify the procedure for submitting tenders and stipulate how they are to be presented, including, in particular, any requirement as to the use of a standard reply form; (b) make reference to the general conditions applicable to the contract concerned (supplies or services), where appropriate, and to any document containing conditions specifically applicable to the particular contract concerned; (c) include a clause stating that the submission of a tender implies acceptance of the relevant conditions; (d) specify the terms under which an inspection may be made, where appropriate, to be set out in detail in the case of on-the-spot inspections; (e) specify the period during which a tender will remain valid and may not be varied in any respect; (f) specify the penalties for failure to comply with the provisions of the contract; (g) specify the details which must be contained in the invoices (or in the relevant supporting documents); (h) prohibit any contact between the Deputy Secretary-General and his staff, representatives of the Governments of the Member States referred to in Article 25, representatives of the Governments of Iceland and Norway and tenderers on matters related to that invitation to tender save, by way of special exception, under the following conditions: before the closing date for the submission of tenders: (i) at the instance of tenderers: additional information solely for the purpose of clarifying the nature of the invitation to tender may be communicated to all tenderers; (ii) at the instance of the Deputy Secretary-General: if the Member States referred to in Article 25, or Iceland and Norway, or the General Secretariat of the Council notice an error, a lack of precision, an omission or any other type of clerical defect in the text of the invitation to tender, the General Secretariat may, in a manner identical with that applicable in respect of the original invitation to tender, inform the persons concerned accordingly; (iii) after the tenders have been opened and at the instance of the Member States referred to in Article 25, Iceland or Norway, or the General Secretariat of the Council, if some clarification is required in connection with a tender, or if obvious clerical errors contained in the tender must be corrected, the General Secretariat may contact the tenderer.