Article 5

1. Taking account of the differences between existing national procedures, Member States shall take the necessary steps to ensure that reference is made to: European standards and European prestandards as described in Article 2 (b); international standards when accepted in the country of the contracting authority; in public procurement orders relating to information technology so that these standards are used as the basis for the exchange of information and data for systems interoperability. 2. In order to provide end-to-end compatibility, Member States shall take the necessary steps to ensure that their telecommunications administrations use functional specifications for the means of access to their public telecommunication networks for those services specifically intended for exchange of information and data between information technology systems which themselves use the standards mentioned in paragraph 1. 3. Application of this Article shall take account of special circumstances as outlined below which may justify the use of standards and specifications other than those provided for in this Decision: the need for operational continuity in existing systems, but only as part of clearly defined and recorded strategies for subsequent transition to international or European standards or functional specifications; the genuinely innovative nature of certain projects; where the standard or functional specification in question is technically inadequate for its purpose on the grounds that it does not provide the appropriate means of achieving information and data exchange or systems interoperability, or that the means (including testing) do not exist to establish satisfactorily conformity of a product to that standard or functional specification or where, in the case of European Pre-Standards, these lack the necessary stability for application. It shall be open to other Member States to demonstrate to the Committee referred to in Article 7 that equipment conforming to the standard had been used satisfactorily, and that use of this waiver was not justified; where, after careful consultation of the market, it is found that important reasons related to cost-effectiveness make use of the standard or functional specification in question inappropriate. It would be open to other Member States to demonstrate to the Committee referred to in Article 7 that equipment conforming to that standard had been used satisfactorily on a normal commercial basis, and that use of this waiver was not justified. 4. In addition, Member States may require reference, on the same basis as in paragraph 1, to draft international standards. 5. Contracting authorities relying upon paragraph 3 shall record their reasons for doing so, if possible, in the initial tender documents issued in respect of the procurement, and in all cases shall record these reasons in their internal documentation and shall supply such information on request to tendering companies and to the Committee referred to in Article 7 whilst respecting commercial confidentiality. It shall also be possible for complaints about use of derogations referred to in paragraph 3 to be made direct to the Commission. 6. The Commission shall ensure that the provisions of this Article are applied in the case of all Community projects and programmes, including public procurement orders financed from the Community budget. 7. Contracting authorities, if they consider it necessary, may apply other specifications to contracts of a value lower than 100 000 ECU, provided that these purchases will not prevent the use of the standards mentioned in paragraphs 1 and 2 in any contract of a greater value than the sum mentioned in this paragraph. The need for the derogation or the level of the threshold established in this paragraph will be reviewed within three years of the briging into application of this Decision.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-31 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.