Section 2: Formalising requirements through technical specifications

The technical specifications may not mention a particular manufacturing method or process or a specific provenance or origin, or refer to a trade mark, patent or type where such mention or reference is likely to favour or eliminate certain economic operators or certain products. However, such a statement or reference is possible if it is justified by the subject of the contract or, exceptionally, in cases where a sufficiently precise…

The purchaser shall formulate the technical specifications:1° Either by reference to standards or other equivalent documents available to candidates;2° Or in terms of performance or functional requirements;3° Or by a combination of the two.

The standards or documents are marked “or equivalent” and chosen in the following order of preference: 1° National standards transposing European standards; 2° European Technical Assessments; 3° Common technical specifications; 4° International standards; 5° Other technical reference systems drawn up by European standardisation bodies or, in their absence, national standards, national technical approvals or national technical specifications relating to the design, calculation and execution of works and the use of…

Technical specifications formulated in terms of performance or functional requirements are sufficiently precise to enable candidates to know exactly what the contract is about and to enable the purchaser to award the contract. They may include environmental or social characteristics.

Where the purchaser formulates a technical specification by reference to a standard or an equivalent document, he may not reject a tender on the grounds that it does not comply with that standard or document if the tenderer proves, by any appropriate means, that the solutions he proposes satisfy in an equivalent manner the requirements defined by that standard or document.Where the purchaser formulates a technical specification in terms of…