a dynamic and innovative European economy can be globally successful in the long term and act as a role model. This requires a market-oriented, industry-friendly and technology-open environment. In addition, the EU must continue to focus on offensive measures to open third markets and promote reciprocal trade. This includes the conclusion and implementation of further free trade and investment agreements with important economic partners. In addition, the EU should pursue plurilateral paths with other interested parties in order to better protect market economies from the distorting effects of state economies. Finally, the EU Commission and the governments of the Member States should use the dialogue with third country state economies to encourage and urge economic reforms toward a more market-oriented economy. In the following, we analyze various trade, investment and competition policy instruments of the EU and examine to what extent these instruments are already sufficient to ensure an international level playing field and where readjustments should be made. Once these instruments have been implemented, they should be applied consistently if the respective conditions are met.
Public Tenders and Procurement Procedures: The International Procurement Instrument The awarding of public contracts is an extremely important economic factor at the national, European and international level. The total volume of public contracts, both at the national and European level, generally amounts to ten to 20 percent of the respective gross domestic product. In this respect, public contracts are also of considerable relevance for economic well-being, growth, innovation and jobs. In this respect, access to public contracts based on transparency and equal treatment of all bidders is essential. Furthermore, effective legal remedies are required in the event of violations of the aforementioned principles respectively the provisions of procurement law created for this purpose. Thus, it is important for companies interested in public tenders not only to have access to public contracts on their home markets, but also to markets for public procurement in other countries. This is particularly important for the heavily export-oriented German economy. As far as essential national security interests pursuant to Article 346 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) require a deviation from this principle, internationally or at least EUwide harmonized principles of application should be pursued wherever possible. In particular, the BDI is of the opinion that unilateral compensation respectively “offset” requirements as a secondary condition of public contracts should be avoided, or – if unavoidable – should be designed in a balanced manner in the sense of a level playing field. Already existing imbalances in market opening in the relationship between the comparatively more open EU on the one hand and often still closed third countries on the other have intensified in recent years. This is one of the factors that could have a negative impact on Europe's desired strategic autonomy. The Commission intends to counteract the growing imbalances in terms of market opening by creating the international procurement instrument (IPI). This instrument aims at opening procurement markets of third countries which are still closed. To this end, a procedure is proposed for the EU to object to and prosecute unacceptable market closures or unfair practices by third countries, which may lead to the sanctioning of bids originating from these countries and thus increase the pressure on them to open their markets.
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