BRUSSELS, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Friday it would seek to persuade reluctant trading partners to open up their public tenders by threatening to make bids for contracts in Europe from non-compliant countries less attractive.
The Commission says that only a quarter of the world's annual procurement market is open to international competition and that EU companies are often subject to discrimination in sectors such as construction, public transport, power generation and medical devices.
The European Union is already in talks on free trade deals with the United States and Japan, with greater access to public tenders a central EU demand, and with the likes of China and Australia about their joining the WTO pact on government procurement.
The Commission proposed on Friday that it would start investigations in cases of alleged discrimination against EU countries. If found, the Commission would invite the country concerned for discussions.
As a last resort, the Commission could, after consultation with EU members, determine to attach a price premium on top of bids from the country concerned.
"To avoid the application of this tool, third countries have only to stop such discrimination," a Commission statement said.
The measure, which will need to be approved by EU member states and the European Parliament, would not apply to the least developed countries and would be limited to contracts above a certain threshold.
The plan is a revision of an initial proposal in 2012 which included the possibility of closing the EU market entirely, an idea that alarmed some member states.