Brussels, 08/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 8 October, the Commission decided to take Spain to the European Court of Justice over a case linked to the “in house” principle.
Two cases involve Spain. A) Madrid will have to provide explanations to the ECJ regarding the creation of joint ventures between the private sector and the IVVSA Institute in charge of accommodation in the Valencia region. These joint ventures carried out studies and urban management analyses without the contracts awarded by the region being put out to tender. The Commission believes that IVVSA does not treat these joint ventures in the same way it does its in house services and that the private partners in these joint venture had an unfair advantage. B) The Spanish authorities will also receive a formal demand to comply with the ruling (C-444/06) of April 2008 by the ECJ, according to which, Madrid failed to meet its obligation of guaranteeing a suitable period of time between awarding the contract and signing it. The Spanish appeals system has been applied since May last year for public procurement and does not allow a company to lodge an appeal while there is still time to halt the procedure for awarding the contract.
In light of recent decisions by the ECJ, the Commission decided to close two infringement procedures against Germany. A) Concerning the award of information technology (IT) supply and service contracts by local and regional public authorities in Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia to public IT service providers, the Commission decided that European law had not been infringed
In its two rulings (C-324/07, Coditel Brabant) (C-573/07, SEA), the ECJ confirmed that public-public cooperation via jointly controlled public entities with limited market orientation carrying out the essential part of their activities with their public owners does not require the application of public procurement procedures.. B) The award of public procurement contracts for treating public wages in certain areas (« Landkreise ») in Rhineland Palatinate also conforms to European law. The Commission invokes the Coditel Brabant and SEA decisions to justify the closure of the infringement procedure. In some cases it refers to a ruling (C-480/06) in June according to which cooperation between the public authorities does not necessarily require the creation of jointly controlled entities.
Reasoned opinion. A) the United Kingdom will receive a reasoned opinion concerning the award (without effectively tendering) of a contract from the Glasgow Housing Association. The commission considers that the park property management contracts allocated to several local accommodation organisations should have respected European public procurement legislation. B) A reasoned opinion will be sent to Slovakia for the allocation of a consulting and legal services contract worth EUR 20 million, linked to the construction of a motorway and highway. The Commission contests the Slovak's claiming that the award of the contract was done because of specific restrictions owing to unforeseen circumstances but the Commission rejects this and believes it did not respect a sufficient standard in advertising.. C) Finally, the Netherlands will receive a reasoned opinion because the Eindhoven council awarded, without sufficiently putting out to tender, a work franchise in the Doornakkers neighbourhood. This contract includes the sale of land and the carrying out of work in shelter and parking in compliance with demands of the council. (M.B. ./trans/rh)