Development cooperation: decentralized cooperation

The committee adopted the report by Mr Luciano VECCHI (PSE, I) on the proposal for a regulation on decentralized cooperation in order to lay down the administrative procedures for Community decentralized cooperation introduced in the Lomé Convention in 1989 and in the regulation organizing cooperation with developing countries in Latin America in 1992. The main amendment adopted by the Committee on Development and Cooperation opens participation in invitations to tender and the award of contracts to all natural and legal persons in recipient countries and to other developing countries on the same terms. Where the quality of offers is the same, applicants from the recipient country and from developing countries in the same region should be given preferential treatment.�