The Belgian Council of State has suspended the decision of the national railway company NMBS/SNCB to award a €3.4 billion contract to the Spanish manufacturer CAF. The move follows a legal challenge by Alstom, a major train manufacturer with a production plant in Bruges, Belgium.
CAF had narrowly won the European tender for the production of the MR30 trains, despite Alstom reportedly offering an almost equally good technical proposal at a lower cost. The award of the contract had caused discontent in Belgian political and industrial circles, particularly because of concerns about possible job losses in Bruges.
In its ruling, the Council of State criticised the SNCB for failing to clearly specify the method used to assess the technical quality of the competing bids. This omission, it said, was contrary to the principle of transparency that public enterprises must observe in public procurement procedures.
Uncertainty
Alstom also argued that the socio-economic impact of the decision – in particular on local employment – had not been properly taken into account, a point supported by several Belgian politicians.
The suspension puts the procurement process on hold while the Council of State considers whether to annul the decision altogether, a decision that could take up to a year. Until then, the future of one of Belgium’s biggest public transport investments remains uncertain.
