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 unless specified otherwise. The selection criteria will not be applied to natural persons and single member companies when they are sub-contractors.
1) The economic and financial capacity of candidate (based on item 3 of the application form). In case of a candidate being a public body, equivalent information should be provided. The
Reference period which will be taken into account will be the last 3 years for which
Accounts have been closed.
— the average annual turnover of the candidate must be at least 1 000 000.00 EUR.
2) Professional capacity of candidate (based on items 4 and 5 of the application form). The reference period which will be taken into account will be the last 5 years from submission deadline.
— at least 10 permanent staff currently work for the candidate in fields related to this contract.
3) Technical capacity of candidate (based on items 5 and 6 of the application form). The reference period which will be taken into account will be the last 5 years from submission deadline.
— The candidate has provided services under at least 2 assignments (such as project, contract, etc.), with the candidate's portion equal to or greater than 800 000.00 EUR for his services in each assignment, that in combination cover these 2 fields of expertise:
a) development and implementation of information and communication campaigns (development of targeted political messaging or visibility strategy, organisation of events, debates, competition, production and dissemination of publications, audio-visual material and promotional materials, web presence, etc.).
b) design, planning and implementation of communication, information and media communication strategy to increase the level of information and public awareness about EU activities, policies and programmes.
This means that the assignments the candidate refers to could have been started or completed at any time during the indicated period but it does not necessarily have to be started and completed during that period, nor implemented during the entire period. Candidates/tenderers are allowed to refer either to assignments completed within the reference period (although started earlier) or to assignments not yet completed. In the first case the assignment will be considered in its whole if proper evidence of performance is provided (statement or certificate from the entity which awarded the contract, proof of final payment). In case of an assignment being still on-going only the portion satisfactorily completed during the reference period although started earlier will be taken into consideration. This portion will have to be supported by documentary evidence (similarly to assignments completed) also detailing its value. If a candidate/tenderer has implemented the assignment in a consortium, the percentage that the candidate/tenderer has successfully completed must be clear from the documentary evidence, together with a description of the nature of the services provided if the selection criteria relating to the pertinence of the experience have been used. Previous experience which caused a breach of contract and termination by a Contracting Authority shall not be used as a reference.
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 the performance of the contract, for example by producing a commitment on the part of those entities to place those resources at its disposal. Such entities, for instance, the parent company of the economic operator, must respect the same rules of eligibility - notably that of nationality – and must fulfil the same relevant selection criteria as the economic operator. With regard to technical and professional criteria, an economic operator may only rely on the capacities of other entities where the latter will perform the works or services for which these capacities are required. With regard to economic and financial criteria, the entities upon whose capacity the tenderer relies, become jointly and severally liable for the performance of the contract.
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 8 best candidates. The only factors which will be taken into consideration during this re-examination are:
— the total number of the reference assignments found eligible under 21.3 and, in case of equality of this criterion, then,
— the value of the eligible part (the proportion carried out by the candidate) of the reference assignments found eligible under criterion 21.3.
