Economic operators from a third country that is not a party to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) cannot rely on the equal treatment provided for in the European directives governing the award of public contracts, ruled the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in a judgment handed down on Tuesday 22 October (case C-652/22).
In Croatia, a Turkish company challenged the legality of awarding to another bidder a public contract for the construction of railway infrastructure linking two Croatian towns.
In its judgment, the CJEU notes that Turkey is not a party to the GPA agreement. In its view, Turkish economic operators cannot participate in a call for tenders by claiming equal treatment with tenderers established in the EU. Nor can they rely on the provisions of the special procurement directive (2014/25) to challenge the decision to award the contract in question.
See the judgment of the Court of Justice: https://aeur.eu/f/dzr (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)