When the European Commission needs to hire experts immediately for projects in partner countries, it turns to one contracting instrument to do so: the Framework Contract Beneficiaries.
“It is easy to use and it is quick,” Agnes Champion, who leads the European Commission’s Supervision Contrats-cadre in Brussels, said of framework contracts.
Champion’s section is responsible for various stages of the procedure, including launching the tender process, signing of contracts, and maintaining the whole framework infrastructure. It deals with any legal modification and functions as a help desk in interpreting the contractual provisions. Its responsibility ends right before contracting at the level of a specific assignment.