Technical Assistance to enhance the Effectiveness, Coherence and Visibility of the Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership between the European Union and the Arab Republic of Egypt (Drawdown Facility).

Average Annual Turnover: The candidate's or tenderer's average annual turnover of the last 3 financial years for which the accounts have been closed must be not less than 4,000,000 EUR. The contracting authority requires an average annual turnover exceeding twice the estimated annual contract value due to the critical and continuous nature of the services. The higher threshold is necessary to ensure that the contractor has sufficient financial capacity to guarantee uninterrupted service delivery and absorb financial risks. This requirement is considered proportionate in view of the risk profile of the contract and does not unduly restrict competition.

Assets/Liabilities Ratio: Current ratio (current assets/current liabilities) in the last year for which accounts have been closed must be at least 1. In case of a consortium this criterion must be fulfilled by each member of the consortium.

Personnel: The candidate or tenderer has, during the current year and the previous two years, on average, at least 30 personnel directly employed or otherwise legally contracted on a permanent or non-permanent basis in areas of specialist knowledge related to this contract.

Absence of Professional Conflicting Interests: The candidate or tenderer is not subject to professional conflicting interests which may negatively affect contract performance. The presence of professional conflicting interests shall be examined on the basis of the statements made through the Declarations on Honour and, where applicable, the statements and other documents submitted.

Completed Services: The candidate or tenderer has completed services under at least three contracts implemented at any moment during the last four years before submission deadline. For each contract, the value of the services completed must not be less than 1,200,000 EUR. The completed services are in the domain of: (a) technical assistance; (b) institutional capacity building and policy advisory support; or (c) support to the design, implementation, monitoring or evaluation of international cooperation programmes, particularly in areas such as public administration reform, governance, economic development, sector policy support, or cooperation with government institutions. The contract referred to could have been implemented at any time during the indicated period but does not necessarily have to be completed during that period, nor implemented during the entire period. Candidates or tenderers are allowed to refer either to projects completed within the reference period (although started earlier) or to projects partially implemented during, but not yet completed within the reference period. Only the part completed during the reference period will be taken into consideration.

Highest Number of Qualifying Contracts: If more than 8 eligible candidates meet the above selection criteria, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the requests to participate will be re-examined to rank them and identify the 8 best. Criterion 1: the highest number of contracts under which services have been completed that meet the technical capacity criterion. Additional comparative criterion No 1 shall be applied to all eligible candidates that meet the selection criteria.