Public Procurement: Infringement proceedings

The European Commission has decided to bring actions before the Court of Justice against France, Germany and Austria and to send reasoned opinions (the second stage of infringement proceedings under Article 169 of the EC Treaty) to Greece and Italy for breaches of the Community rules on public procurement. The infringements concern the following allegations:

• Failure to comply with Directive 93/38/EEC on procurement in the water, energy and telecommunications sectors when awarding the main supply contract for an automatic light rail transit system in Rennes, France.
• Failure to fulfil obligations under Directive 77/66/EEC on supply contracts, in relation to supply of mail sorting equipment to DBP Postdienst in Germany.
• Failure to transpose all of the Directives on public procurement in Austria.
• Restrictions on the free movement of goods (Article 30) in relation to contract award procedures for supplies for public hospitals in Greece.
• Breach of EC Treaty rules on the free movement of goods (Article 30) and services (Article 59) and Directive 93/36/EEC on public supply contracts in connection with public contracts awarded for the supply of food products as part of the Italian government's food aid initiatives.
• Breach of the Directive on public service contracts (92/50/EEC) and the Treaty rules on freedom to provide services (Article 59) concerning public contracts for town planning services for municipal waste collection services in Italy.

These cases have been investigated in response to complaints lodged with the Commission by firms adversely affected by contract award decisions or as part of the regular checks carried out by the Commission to ensure that Community directives are properly transposed into national law.