The EU has revised the contract value thresholds, above which its rules on public purchasing apply, with effect from January 2010.

The Commission has issued a regulation amending Directives 2004/17/EC, 2004/18/EC and 2009/81/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council in respect of their application thresholds for the procedures for the award of contracts.

The new threshold for construction contracts is €4,845,000.  For services and supply contracts, the value for those contracts issued by central government bodies is €125,000, whereas for local authorities and similar organisations it will be €193,000.  Slightly higher values will apply for service and supply contracts put out to tender by public utility organisations, €387,000.

All the new values will apply for contracts, which where published in the Official Journal of the European Union of December, 1, put out to tender from 1st January 2010.

After Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986 to 1994), the Council concluded the Agreement on Government Procurement. The Agreement should be applied to any procurement contract with a value that reaches or exceeds the amounts set in the Agreement and expressed as special drawing rights.

The thresholds laid down by Directives 2004/17/EC, 2004/18/EC and 2009/81/EC for public contracts, which are also covered by the Agreement, should now be aligned in order to ensure that they correspond to the euro equivalents, rounded down to the nearest thousand, of the thresholds set out in the Agreement.