The Board of Directors of the Belgian public railroad company NMBS/SNCB has postponed its decision on designating Spanish CAF as the preferred bidder for a billion-euro order for new railcars. NMBS/SNCB’s decision drew considerable political criticism, and CAF competitors Alstom and Siemens also appealed to the Council of State.
In a reaction, NMBS/SNCB refers to legal and technical opinions of which it has taken note, “and which validate the management’s evaluation” regarding the decision to designate CAF as the preferred bidder for the MR30 purchase contract. Additional “justification elements” have also been noted, said NMBS/SNCB.
Case before the Council of State
At the end of February, NMBS/SNCB designated Spanish train builder CAF as the preferred bidder for the construction of hundreds of new MR30 trainsets. It involves a contract worth between 1.7 billion and 3.4 billion euros. This followed a tender process in which competitors Alstom and Siemens withdrew.
However, French Alstom, which employs 3,000 people at its Bruges and Charleroi sites, was 100 million euros cheaper than CAF, according to the CEO, while the overall score would have been only very slightly in favor of the Spanish. Consequently, both Siemens and Alstom went to the Council of State, which decided in Alstom’s favor in mid-April to suspend negotiations between NMBS/SNCB and CAF.
The Board of Directors disapproves
Despite this suspension, the NMBS/SNCB management still stuck to the choice for CAF. But the Board of Directors, which includes several politicians, did not give its approval on Friday. Among other things, the CD&V directors insisted on a decision that allowed for employment in Bruges and Charleroi. Deputy Prime Minister Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V) would also have made that point in the core cabinet.
There will be an extra board meeting in July, where the knot may be cut. CD&V MP and Bruges alderman Franky Demon is calling on the other parties represented on the NMBS/SNCB’s Board of Directors to support the CD&V position then.
“For us, this award is not a purely technical issue. It is about hundreds of jobs, affected families, and the future of our industry,” he said. “We will not allow more than 600 jobs at Alstom in Bruges to be put under pressure without thorough consideration of the social and economic consequences.”
Green MP Staf Aerts also opposes negotiations with CAF because the company operates in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine.
The minister points to EU procurement rules
Mobility Minister Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés) stressed in his response that it is the Board of Directors that will ultimately have to tie the knot. “The board cannot hide behind political power to postpone a decision that is exclusively within its competence.”
In the Chamber, Crucke already stressed that European procurement rules do not allow the railroad company to grant an advantage to a company because it produces in Belgium.
