Brussels, 11/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to ask Greece for its observations on the compatibility with EU law of Greek national law (3021/2002) preventing companies “interconnected” with Greek mass media businesses from obtaining public contracts. The Commission's request takes the form of a letter of formal notice, the first stage of the infringement procedure under Article 226 of the EC Treaty. After the suspension of law 3310/2005 on the same subject, the previously existing law (3021/2002) came back into force in Greece (see EUROPE 8915). The Greek authorities now have two weeks to respond. They have already pointed out that the legislation in force does not run counter to European law, information which the Commission is in the process of examining.
Like the suspended law3310/2005, the 3021/2002 law, implementing Article 14(9) of the Greek Constitution, prevents companies interconnected with Greek mass media businesses from participating in public procurement proceedings. The Commission considers that Law 3021/2002 is contrary to secondary Community law (the Directives on public procurement), in that it lays down exclusion criteria that are not provided for in the Directives, and does not respect the equal treatment of participants since it covers people 'interconnected' under Article 14(9) of the Greek Constitution, in other words parents, husbands and wives and any financially dependent physical or moral person.