Brussels, 14/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission decided on Tuesday 14 April to continue a number of public procurement infringement procedures against Ireland and Germany. Firstly, Ireland is to be referred to the Court of Justice over the procedure followed by the Department of Justice in awarding a public service contract for interpretation services. By attributing weightings to the award criteria following the closing date for the submission of the bids and by modifying these weightings subsequent to an initial review of the submitted bids, the contracting authority, the Commission feels, infringed the principles of equal treatment and transparency as interpreted by the European Court of Justice in its judgments handed down in cases C-92/00 HI Krankenhaustechnik, C-19/00 SIAC Construction Ltd and C-448/01 EVN.
Germany. (1) The Commission has sent a reasoned opinion to Germany concerning the award of services for the collection and disposal of waste water by the city of Hamm to the mixed public-private water association Lippeverband without carrying out tender procedures. The Commission considers that the award of a remunerated contract requires the execution of tender procedures and that the city of Hamm cannot exert the same level of supervision over Lippeverband as it does over its own departments. (2) Germany is to receive a second reasoned opinion over information service contracts awarded by the federal government and a number of German states to Juris GmbH, the leading provider of legal database services in Germany. The Commission believes that the partial privatisation of Juris GmbH in 2001 changed the cooperation agreement between the company and the German state, and that a new contract should have been awarded by contract award procedure in line with European legislation on public procurement. (M.B./transl.rt)