On Thursday 29 July, the Commission sent a reasoned opinion to Slovakia over its delay in reevaluating tenders in the railway sector.
Under the European law in force, public procurement procedures must be transparent and effective. In particular, economic operators must be dealt with fairly, with the tenders to be examined within a reasonable period and resulting in a decision.
However, by failing to finalise the evaluation of the tenders in the framework of a public procurement procedure launched in 2009 for a railway reconstruction project of a value of €250 million, Bratislava is infringing the directive on public procurement and the principles of equality of treatment and non-discrimination of tenders (Directive 2004/17/EC, Article 10).
As long ago as October 2014, the Commission sent Slovakia a letter of formal notice on this subject. Following this, the Supreme Court of the member state in question cancelled all allocation decisions for this contract and ordered the submitted tenders to be re-evaluated. Two years on from that decision, the Slovakian authorities have still to finish their reassessment.
The Commission consequently states that by failing to apply the Supreme Court decision, Slovakia is not complying with the provisions on the effective implementation of the decisions of the assessment bodies laid down in the directive on remedies (Directive 92/13/EEC of the Council, Article 2, §8).
Bratislava now has two months to notify the European Commission of the corrective measures it has taken to remedy the situation. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)