In the Netherlands, there has been a standard administrative practice to award all public contracts for fire insurance by means of a negotiated procedure following a published contract notice in the OJEU. Although the procedure is transparent and open to bidders throughout the EU, the European Commission challenged the practice on the basis that the negotiated procedure is less likely to ensure equal treatment for bidders than the open or restricted procedure and may only be used where conditions for its exceptional use are met. The Commission made its views known in a reasoned opinion in 2010 and as a result, the Dutch authorities have accepted that this practice is inconsistent with procurement rules and have committed to using the correct procedures in future.