Article 89

1. General rules on eligibility: Participation in the award of procurement contracts, grants and other award procedures for actions financed under this Decision for the benefit of third parties shall be open to all natural persons who are nationals of, and legal persons which are effectively established in, an eligible country or territory as defined in paragraph 2, and to International Organisations. In the case of actions jointly co-financed with a partner or other donor or implemented through a Member State in shared management or through a Trust Fund established by the Commission, countries which are eligible under the rules of that partner, other donor or Member State or determined in the constitutive act of the trust fund, shall also be eligible. In the case of actions implemented through entrusted bodies, which are Member States or their agencies, the European Investment Bank or through International Organisations or their agencies, natural and legal persons who are eligible under the rules of that entrusted body, as identified in the agreements concluded with the co-financing or implementing body, shall also be eligible. In the case of actions financed under this Decision and, in addition, under another Instrument for external action, including the Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, of the other part, signed in Cotonou on 23 June 2000 (9), as last amended in Ouagadougou on 22 June 2010 (10), the countries identified under any of these Instruments shall be considered eligible for the purpose of that action. In the case of actions of a global, regional or cross-border nature financed under this Decision, natural and legal persons from countries, territories and regions covered by the action may participate in the procedures implementing such actions. All supplies purchased under a procurement contract, or in accordance with a grant agreement, financed under this Decision shall originate from an eligible country or territory. However, they may originate from any country or territory when the amount of the supplies to be purchased is below the threshold for the use of the competitive negotiated procedure. For the purposes of this Article, the term ‘origin’ is defined in Article 23 and 24 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 (11) and other Union legislation governing non-preferential origin. The rules under this Article do not apply to, and do not create nationality restrictions for, natural persons employed or otherwise legally contracted by an eligible contractor or, where applicable, subcontractor. Eligibility as defined in this Article may be restricted with regard to the nationality, localisation or nature of applicants, where required by the nature and the objectives of the action and as necessary for its effective implementation. Natural and legal persons who have been awarded contracts shall respect applicable environmental legislation including multilateral environmental agreements as well as internationally agreed core labour standards. 2. Tenderers, applicants and candidates from the following countries and territories shall be eligible to funding under this Decision: Member States, candidate countries and potential candidates as recognised by the Union, and members of the European Economic Area; OCTs; developing countries and territories, as included in the OECD-DAC list of ODA Recipients, which are not members of the G-20 group; countries for which reciprocal access to external assistance is established by the Commission. Reciprocal access may be granted, for a limited period of at least one year, whenever a country grants eligibility on equal terms to entities from the Union and from OCTs; Member States of the OECD, in the case of contracts implemented in a Least Developed Country; when announced in advance in the documents of the procedure: countries having traditional economic, trade or geographical links with neighbouring beneficiary countries; all countries, in the case of urgency or of unavailability of products and services in the markets of the eligible countries. 3. Tenderers, applicants and candidates from non-eligible countries or goods from non-eligible origin may be accepted as eligible by the Commission in duly substantiated cases where the eligibility rules would make the realisation of a project, a programme or an action impossible or exceedingly difficult. 4. For actions implemented in shared management, the relevant Member State to which the Commission has delegated implementation tasks is entitled, on behalf of the Commission, to authorise participation of tenderers, applicants and candidates from other countries and authorise goods from other countries within the meaning of point (f) of paragraph 2, and to accept as eligible, tenderers, applicants and candidates from non-eligible countries within the meaning of paragraph 3, or goods from non-eligible origin within the meaning of point (d) of paragraph 1.

← art_88__para_2 · All articles · art_89__para_1 →

Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-02 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.