Article 13

1. Contracting entities shall include the technical specifications in the general documents or the contract documents relating to each contract. 2. The technical specifications shall be defined by reference to European specifications where these exist. 3. In the absence of European specifications, the technical specifications should as far as possible be defined by reference to other standards having currency within the Community. 4. Contracting entities shall define such further requirements as are necessary to complement European specifications or other standards. In doing so, they shall prefer specifications that indicate performance requirements rather than design or description characteristics unless the contracting entity has objective reasons for considering that such specifications are inadequate for the purposes of the contract. 5. Technical specifications which mention goods of a specific make or source or of a particular process, and which have the effect of favouring or eliminating certain undertakings, shall not be used unless such specifications are indispensable for the subject of the contract. In particular, the indication of trade marks, patents, types, or specific origin or production shall be prohibited; however, such an indication accompanied by the words or equivalent shall be authorized where the subject of the contract cannot otherwise be described by specifications ENGMS 32-46theo10-13Thomas which are sufficiently precise and fully intelligible to all concerned. 6. Contracting entities may derogate from paragraph 2 if: (a)it is technically impossible to establish satisfactorily that a product conforms to the European specifications; (b)the application of paragraph 2 would prejudice the application of Council Directive 86/361/EEC of 24 July 1986 on the initial stage of the mutual recognition of type approval for telecommunications terminal equipment(15), or of Council Decision 87/95/EEC of 22 December 1986 on standardization in the field of information technology and telecommunications(16); (c)in the context of adapting existing practice to take account of European specifications, use of these specifications would oblige the contracting entity to acquire supplies incompatible with equipment already in use or would entail disproportionate cost or disproportionate technical difficulty. Contracting entities which have recourse to this derogation shall do so only as part of a clearly defined and recorded strategy with a view to a change-over to European specifications; (d)the relevant European specification is inappropriate for the particular application or does not take account of technical developments which have come about since its adoption. Contracting entities which have recourse to this derogation shall inform the appropriate standardizing organization, or any other body empowered to review the European specification, of the reasons why they consider the European specification to be inappropriate and shall request its revision; (e)the project is of a genuinely innovative nature for which use of European specifications would not be appropriate. 7. Notices published pursuant to Article 16 (1) (a) shall indicate any recourse to the derogations referred to in paragraph 6. 8. This Article shall be without prejudice to compulsory technical rules insofar as these are compatible with Community law.

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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.