Why are we the only EU country that obeys the rules?

[R1Geezer]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...d-derbyshire-14019992
Can you see any other EU county giving out a contract to foriegners against it's own? EU procurement rules, yada yada yada, why do the rules only apply to us?

[jno]

what evidence have you got that the other 26 countries break the rules all the time?

[brionon]

JNO Europe Haters don't need evidence.

[McMouse]

Rules apply to all member states. Examples of transgressions please.

[R1Geezer]

Spanish and French fishermen for a start. Most of the time the others only obey the rules that suit them. We obey all of them no matter how ridiculous, that's why we are not suited to this club.

[sandyRoe]

A few years back weren't English fishermen queueing up to sell their quotas to the Spanish?

[McMouse]

If French and Spanish fishermen ignore quotas or fish in banned waters and are caught they are prosecuted and may have their gear and boats confiscated for repeat offences.

[youngmafbog]

It is well known here and abroad. Some French and Belgiun collegues of mine actually asked me why the British were so stupid and obeyed every single pettyy dictat from our Brussels masters.

[Old_Geezer]

Guy on this morning's TV didn't deny countries like France were astute at ensuring their own companies won contracts, even if he didn't go into details; and he seemed to be arguing that all EU countries abided by the rules. So I formed the opinion he was being honest.

The problem is we are neither one EU wide country where the actual company and workforce chosen makes little difference overall, nor are we any longer separate countries in the sense that we can choose companies from our own country knowing to import the labour will result in the taxpayer here paying out for more welfare, and more job loss misery for individual UK citizens. The system is neither one thing nor the other, but the worse of both.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.cio.com/ar...w_on_Internet_Privacy

One example for starters,

/// IDG News Service — New European Union rules to ensure privacy have been ignored by the vast majority of E.U. member countries, according to Jonathan Todd, European Commission spokesman for Digital Agenda.///

/// Only Denmark, Estonia and the U.K. have so far notified measures to implement the revisions to the ePrivacy Directive, ///

[Gromit]

Siemens employ thousands of British workers in sites all over the UK.

http://www.siemens.co.../siemensukoffices.htm

This contract is good for British jobs.

[Gromit]

// Our UK employees strongly contributed to the success of Siemens globally”, said Andreas J. Goss, Chief Executive of Siemens in the UK. “Our people are our greatest asset and we are proud to have some of the best talents in the industry. The last year has been tough, there have been significant hurdles to overcome. This special payment to our employees is to recognise that we value their contribution and their loyalty to our company.”
-ends-

Notes to editors:

About Siemens in the UK
Siemens was established in the United Kingdom 167 years ago. Last year’s revenues were £4.2 billion. As a leading global engineering and technology services company, Siemens provides innovative solutions to help tackle the world’s major challenges, across the key sectors of energy, industry and healthcare. Siemens has offices and factories throughout the UK, with its headquarters in Frimley, Surrey. The company’s global headquarters is in Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.siemens.co.uk //

[rov1100]

If Bombardia in UK loses this contract they are going to pull out of the UK lock stock and barrel. Then no jobs at all for British workers. Who can blame them when support from the British government is nil.

Cameron et al will not worry as they have their personal £mns to fall back on!

[anotheoldgit]

/// This contract is good for British jobs. ///

It would have been better if the contract had been awarded to the UK, instead of waiting at the table ready for the crumbs droppings.

[rov1100]

You notice that when the announcement to select Siemens it was too late for a public debate in order to do a U-turn. You could tell the decision had been made because the decision to sack the workers would not have been made unless that company knew they had lost the contract.

The minister responsible should get the sack!

[emmie]

the piece i was watching on the news the other evening said that in fact Bombadier had given a very competitive price, so not sure why Siemens were preferred, they also added that the plant in Derby that makes trains is the last one in UK. Sorry if my info is incorrect, was doing something at same time, so not my full attention, but seems wrong somehow.

[buildersmate]

Not that I think you are the slightest bit interested in a 'factual' answer, Geezer (when soundbytes will do) but ............

The EU public procurement rules that apply to all EU nations say that you have to declare the criteria (against which the tenders will be assessed) upfront with the tender documentation release.
Declaring a criteria 'Only Brits companies will be considered' won't wash - this can only be done on contracts with a national security implication.
The criteria can be a combination of price and various quality factors - usually described by those who don't have clue what it means as 'best value for money'. Price isn't just a straightforward cost of the trains - these contracts invariably involve through life costs of servicing the things.
Philip Hammond was absolutely correct on radio this morning saying his options were go-ahead or cancel the whole contract - he can't change the criteria at the end of the competition on the grounds the wrong company won.
Opposition politicians and unions know this as well but, hey what the heck, the average punter on the street doesn't understand these complexities, so let's make some cheap political mischief out of it.

[R1Geezer]

all that is true builder but in reality it's a bit like prejudice against job applicants, nothing in the process would exclude certain sections but the interviewer knows who is not going to get the job. Same in the EU, can you in all seriousness imagine that any other country would have not hired an indigenous firm regardless of the process?

[Buenchico]

The one thing that nobody seems to have mentioned on this thread is that Bombardier make rubbish trains! They're regarded in the rail industry as roughly the equivalent of Lada cars, in the days before the fall of the Berlin wall.

One of the things that all rail users want most is reliability. Trains built by Bombardier certainly can't provide that! Their Class 170 units, for example, have had countless problems with air-conditioning units, toilet doors which either locked passengers in or out of them, pas-coms (the modern equivalent of communication cords) which refused to be reset after someone had operated them, and far, far more. Those are just the smaller problems (although, as they've frequently resulted in trains being taken out of service, they might not seem small to the travellers affected by them!). The bigger problems include large numbers of trains having to have new engines fitted because they were simply too noisy.

Anyone ordering trains from Bombardier needs their head examined!

[SpikeyBush]

So, Buenchico, we need to address the root cause of British manufacturing not having advanced at all since the days of the Austin Princess, another example of a potentially great product being scuppered by the "it'll do" build-quality ethic.

[DTCwordfan]

Bombardier is perhaps one of the legacies of those 1970s days....there is plenty being namufactured in this country of world class technology, as evident by the recent Beeb 2 programme - the issue is encouraging more start up of such high-end tech driven businesses.