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1. The Commission, and one or more contracting authorities or contracting entities as defined in Article 4 of Directive 2014/25/EU from the participating Member States, may carry out a joint procurement procedure in accordance with the rules set out in Article 168(2) of the Financial Regulation with a view to the provision of goods and services of critical importance or crisis-relevant goods and services. The Member States may acquire, rent or lease fully the capacities jointly procured.

2. Participation in the joint procurement procedure shall be open to all Member States, EFTA States and Union candidate countries, as well as the Principality of Andorra, the Principality of Monaco, the Republic of San Marino and the Vatican City State. For the purposes of this Article and Article 41, those countries shall be considered participating Member States where they decide to participate in the joint procurement.

3. The joint procurement procedure shall be preceded by a joint procurement agreement between the Commission and the participating Member States in order to determine the practical arrangements governing the procurement and the award criteria, in accordance with relevant Union law.

4. The Commission shall inform the European Parliament about the joint procurement procedures conducted in accordance with this Article and, upon request, grant access to the contracts that are concluded as a result of those procedures, subject to the adequate protection of commercially sensitive information, including business secrets, commercial relations and the interests of the Union.