Question over vital ferries order

British shipyards are bidding for the ferries work

The European Commission has asked the Ministry of Defence to explain why it reopened the bidding process for six-roll roll-off ferries.

The MoD invited fresh tenders for the lucrative contract in May and said it had taken the unusual step for business reasons.

However, the decision followed speculation that a German shipyard had undercut a Scottish yard dependent on the work.

Thousands of jobs are at stake

EC officials have given the MoD a month to explain its actions or face more formal proceedings.

Under European law, political factors cannot be taken into account when governments decide what tenders to accept. It states that strict economic tests have to be applied.

Jonathon Todd, the commission's internal market spokesman confirmed that it had written informally to the UK Government asking it to explain what procedures were followed.

He added: "We want to know why this was reopened, we want to know whether the timetable for tenders was respected, we want to know why bidders were asked to resubmit tenders and we want to know were they asked to restructure their bids.

I hope we will be able to put in a competitive tender, I know how important this contract is to the Clyde

Robin Cook, Foreign Secretary

"What we are concerned about is open competition, we are talking about a huge amount of money and we have to make sure the rules of the single market were applied.

"We are not talking about something being illegitimate, we are simply asking for information."

The Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he accepted that the commission was simply doing its job.

He told BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland: "The commission is not meddling, no decision has been made, they have simply asked for information.

Robin Cook: "No case to answer"

"They want to know that procedures and timetables have been followed. I am sure the MoD has no case to answer.

"I hope we will be able to put in a competitive tender, I know how important this contract is to the Clyde."

But he added that it was also important that the MoD received value for money.

If the EC finds that the defence department breached competition rules, then the final decision on the contracts could be delayed.

However, the MoD has insisted that no rules were broken as contracts had not yet been awarded.

At a shipbuilding summit last week, union officials urged ministers to ensure that the forthcoming orders for the six ferries went to UK yards.

German bidder

Shop stewards at yards including BAE Systems at Govan in Glasgow have stressed that a decision to send the work elsewhere would prove disastrous.

There were reports that the government had intervened when the German bidder had undercut Govan by £500m.

Unions expressed delight when the government announced earlier this month that the contracts to build three new Type 45 destroyers for the Royal Navy would go to British shipyards.

Govan was one of those yards given the work but the yard's supporters said that would not be enough to guarantee its future in difficult times for the British shipbuilding industry.