Luxembourg, 13/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 13 November, the Court of Justice rejected a case brought by the Commission against Ireland (case C-507/03). The Commission had said that Ireland had breached Community law by entrusting the payment of social welfare benefits to An Post, the Irish postal service, without undertaking any prior advertising. The Court stated that the Commission was unable to prove conclusively that another service provider had been deprived of the opportunity to bid for the contract.
The Court acknowledged that the contract had a cross-border service element, and that it was, therefore, illegal to prevent a service provider from another member state from tendering. However, the Commission would only indicate that it has received “a complaint”, without giving the origin or any further details. Given this lack of information, the Court rejected the Commission's appeal. The award of this contract, then, did not infringe Council directive 92/50/EEC on public procurement. The contract concerned paying out, mostly in cash, social welfare and health insurance payments in Ireland to around 900,000 people. The amount distributed annually was of the order of €7 billion, said Angus Laverty, An Post spokesman, and he welcomed “the clarity brought by the findings”. The contract itself was worth around €52 million per year, and, especially, affected roughly 30% of postal service customers in Ireland.
Several other member states supported Ireland: Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Finland. It must be assumed that, in those countries, there exist similar contracts which this ruling has now shown to comply with Community law. (C.D.)