receiving a complaint from the EU producers concerned, but it could also exceptionally do so on its own initiative 15. In accordance with existing rules on public procurement 16, Member States are encouraged to not award contracts solely on the basis of the lowest price, but also to take into account quality in areas such as security, labour and environmental standards. Moreover, they do not prevent Member States from imposing or enforcing measures necessary to protect public security or essential security interests. Tenders from bidders that do not have secured access to the EU procurement market (based on binding international or bilateral free trade agreements covering public procurement) may also be excluded. Member States may also under certain conditions exclude an economic operator that could cause a risk to the essential national security interests. Furthermore, within the field of defence and security, public buyers do not have to give access to the tenders to third country operators. Maintaining and further developing European capacities in the area of 5G and in particular in critical parts of the value chain by leveraging EU Research & Innovation Funding programmes and Industrial policy tools is a strategic risk mitigating measure addressing the risk of dependencies. By supporting disruptive and ambitious research, innovation and deployment funding programmes, such as Horizon Europe, Digital Europe Programme, and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) can facilitate the emergence of European competitive sourcing options, especially as regards to processors and critical software. The funding programmes also contain security-related provisions. Moreover, linked to the EU’s state aid regime, IPCEIs (Important Projects of Common European Interest) make it possible to bring together knowledge, expertise, financial resources and economic actors throughout the Union 17, so as to overcome important market or systemic failures and societal challenges which cannot otherwise be addressed. They are designed to bring together public and private sectors to undertake large-scale projects that provide significant benefits to the Union and its citizens. Finally, other relevant or potentially relevant tools and frameworks at EU and national level include data protection and privacy rules (in particular the General Data Protection Regulation and e-Privacy Directive) 18, the Radio Equipment Directive 19, EU rules on export controls 20, requirements applicable to critical infrastructures, as well as frameworks aimed at responding to cyber incidents 15 Anti-dumping legal instrument (Regulation (EU) 2016/1036), anti-subsidy legal instrument (Regulation (EU) 2016/1037), safeguards (Regulation (EU) 2015/478). E.g. Directive 2014/24/EU of 26 February, 2014 on Public Procurement; Directive 2009/81/EC of 13 July, 2009 in the fields of defence and security, C(2019)5494 Guidance of 24 July, 2019 on the participation of 3rd country bidders and goods in the EU procurement market. 17 Based on Article 107(3)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and C (2014) 188/02 on the criteria for the analysis of the compatibility with the internal market of State aid to promote the execution of important projects of common European interests. 18 Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data; Dir. 2002/58/EC on the processing of personal data & the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector. 19 Directive 2014/53/EU of 16 April, 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of radio equipment. 20 Regulation EC 428 2009 of 5 May, 2009 on a Community regime for the control of exports, transfer, brokering and transit of dualuse goods, and COM (2016) 616 proposal of 28 September,2016 16 8