2.8.2005 Official Journal of the European Union L 201/3 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC, EURATOM) No 1261/2005 of 20 July 2005 amending Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/2002 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Commu- nities (1), and in particular Article 183 thereof, Having consulted the European Parliament, the Council, the Court of Justice of the European Communities, the Court of Auditors, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, the Ombudsman and the European Data Protection Supervisor, Whereas: (1) Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002, hereinafter ‘the Financial Regulation’, provides that, for their own contracts, the Community institutions are to comply with the rules, contained in the Directives, applicable to the Member States. Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts () amended these rules. Where relevant, the amendments made by Directive 2004/18/EC should therefore be incorporated into Commission Regu- lation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/2002 (), which essentially transposes the rules of Council Directive 92/50/EEC (%), concerning the award of public service contracts, into the internal financial rules of the institutions. () OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1. () OJ L 134, 30.4.2004, p. 114. Directive as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1874/2004 (O] L 326, 29.10.2004, p. 17). () OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 1. () O] L 209, 24.7.1992, p. 1. Directive repealed by Directive 2004/18]EC. 2 G) Those amendments concern in particular the new possi- bilities for electronic award procedures, including the new dynamic purchasing system for commonly used items, the competitive dialogue procedure, the rules governing contracts declared to be secret and the use of framework agreements — which for practical reasons should continue to be referred to as framework contracts for the purposes of implementing the Community budget, thus making it possible for the parties to a framework agreement to be required to compete for the award of specific contracts — and the added emphasis given to social and environmental dimensions in the evaluation of tenders. The thresholds applicable have also been revised for service contracts not subject to the agreement of the World Trade Organisation. Directive 2004/18/EC also harmonises the provisions applicable to the three main categories of contract, with reference in particular to advertising, technical speci- fications and the calculation of the value of the contracts. Furthermore, the provisions relating to the means of identifying interest on pre-financing payments have proved too restrictive. It should therefore be made permissible for any accounting method to be used to identify such interest. Article 31 of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/2002 sets out the list of basic acts for the purposes of Article 49 of the Financial Regulation, but does not cover the whole range of legal instruments available to the Council in the field of the common foreign and security policy. The list should therefore be extended to include decisions relating to the conclusion of international agreements and decisions on urgent action of limited duration to deal with crisis situations. It is also appropriate to lay down a procedure for informing unsuccessful candidates and tenderers in procurement procedures conducted by the institutions on their own account. Such information should be provided before the contract is signed and should give the unsuccessful candidates and tenderers the reasons why their application or tender has been rejected. The introduction of such an information procedure is designed to make the institutions subject to an obligation imposed on the Member States by the Court of Justice of the European Communities.