Brussels, 02/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - On 31 March, the European Commission decided to formally request six Member States to put right a total of nine infringements of EU public procurement law. It is asking Italy to ensure fair competition, open to bidders from across the EU, for the award of contracts to build high-speed railway lines. Greece is being requested to comply with the public procurement Directives in awarding contracts for the printing and publication of school text books and Portugal to implement correctly EU law on procurement in the water, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors. The Commission has also decided to ask Ireland and the UK to introduce procedures to allow tenderers to challenge the decisions of awarding authorities before it is too late to change such decisions, in line with the Public Procurement Remedies Directive. In Lower Saxony, meanwhile, a contract for waste water disposal in Hinte was awarded without competition and Germany is being requested to rectify this.
In two further cases involving Germany, the Commission, under Article 228 of the Treaty, is asking the national authorities to apply decisions already taken by the Court over the illegal award of contracts for waste water collection in Bockhorn and for waste disposal in Braunschweig (both also in Lower Saxony). If Germany does not comply, the Commission may ask the Court to impose a daily fine.