Directive 2007/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 11 December 2007
amending Council Directives 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC with regard to improving the effectiveness of review procedures concerning the award of public contracts
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 95 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee(1),
Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions(2),
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty(3),
Whereas:
(1) Council Directives 89/665/EEC of 21 December 1989 on the coordination of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the application of review procedures to the award of public supply and public works contracts(4) and 92/13/EEC of 25 February 1992 coordinating the laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the application of Community rules on the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors(5) concern the review procedures with regard to contracts awarded by contracting authorities as referred to in Article 1(9) of Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts(6) and contracting entities as referred to in Article 2 of Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors(7). Directives 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC are intended to ensure the effective application of Directives 2004/18/EC and 2004/17/EC.
(2) Directives 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC therefore apply only to contracts falling within the scope of Directives 2004/18/EC and 2004/17/EC as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the European Communities, whatever competitive procedure or means of calling for competition is used, including design contests, qualification systems and dynamic purchasing systems. According to the case law of the Court of Justice, the Member States should ensure that effective and rapid remedies are available against decisions taken by contracting authorities and contracting entities as to whether a particular contract falls within the personal and material scope of Directives 2004/18/EC and 2004/17/EC.
(3) Consultations of the interested parties and the case law of the Court of Justice have revealed a certain number of weaknesses in the review mechanisms in the Member States. As a result of these weaknesses, the mechanisms established by Directives 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC do not always make it possible to ensure compliance with Community law, especially at a time when infringements can still be corrected. Consequently, the guarantees of transparency and non-discrimination sought by those Directives should be strengthened to ensure that the Community as a whole fully benefit from the positive effects of the modernisation and simplification of the rules on public procurement achieved by Directives 2004/18/EC and 2004/17/EC. Directives 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC should therefore be amended by adding the essential clarifications which will allow the results intended by the Community legislature to be attained.
(4) The weaknesses which were noted include in particular the absence of a period allowing an effective review between the decision to award a contract and the conclusion of the contract in question. This sometimes results in contracting authorities and contracting entities who wish to make irreversible the consequences of the disputed award decision proceeding very quickly to the signature of the contract. In order to remedy this weakness, which is a serious obstacle to effective judicial protection for the tenderers concerned, namely those tenderers who have not yet been definitively excluded, it is necessary to provide for a minimum standstill period during which the conclusion of the contract in question is suspended, irrespective of whether conclusion occurs at the time of signature of the contract or not.
(5) The duration of the minimum standstill period should take into account different means of communication. If rapid means of communication are used, a shorter period can be provided for than if other means of communication are used. This Directive only provides for minimum standstill periods. Member States are free to introduce or to maintain periods which exceed those minimum periods. Member States are also free to decide which period should apply, if different means of communication are used cumulatively.
(6) The standstill period should give the tenderers concerned sufficient time to examine the contract award decision and to assess whether it is appropriate to initiate a review procedure. When the award decision is notified to them, the tenderers concerned should be given the relevant information which is essential for them to seek effective review. The same applies accordingly to candidates to the extent that the contracting authority or contracting entity has not made available in due time information about the rejection of their application.
(7) Such relevant information includes, in particular, a summary of the relevant reasons as set out in Article 41 of Directive 2004/18/EC and Article 49 of Directive 2004/17/EC. As the duration of the standstill period varies from one Member State to another, it is also important that the tenderers and candidates concerned should be informed of the effective period available to them to bring review proceedings.
(8) This type of minimum standstill period is not intended to apply if Directive 2004/18/EC or Directive 2004/17/EC does not require prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, in particular in cases of extreme urgency as provided for in Article 31(1)(c) of Directive 2004/18/EC or Article 40(3)(d) of Directive 2004/17/EC. In those cases it is sufficient to provide for effective review procedures after the conclusion of the contract. Similarly, a standstill period is not necessary if the only tenderer concerned is the one who is awarded the contract and there are no candidates concerned. In this case there is no other person remaining in the tendering procedure with an interest in receiving the notification and in benefiting from a standstill period to allow for effective review.
(9) Finally, in cases of contracts based on a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system, a mandatory standstill period could have an impact on the efficiency gains intended by those tendering procedures. Member States should be able therefore, instead of introducing a mandatory standstill period, to provide for ineffectiveness as an effective sanction in accordance with Article 2d of both Directives 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC for infringements of the second indent of the second subparagraph of Article 32(4) and of Article 33(5) and (6) of Directive 2004/18/EC, and of Article 15(5) and (6) of Directive 2004/17/EC.
(10) In the cases referred to in Article 40(3)(i) of Directive 2004/17/EC, contracts based on a framework agreement do not require prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union. In those cases a standstill period should not be mandatory.
(11) When a Member State requires a person intending to use a review procedure to inform the contracting authority or contracting entity of that intention, it is necessary to make it clear that this should not affect the standstill period or any other period to apply for review. Furthermore, when a Member State requires that the person concerned has first sought a review with the contracting authority or contracting entity, it is necessary that this person should have a reasonable minimum period within which to refer to the competent review body before the conclusion of the contract, in the event that that person should wish to challenge the reply or lack of reply from the contracting authority or contracting entity.
(12) Seeking review shortly before the end of the minimum standstill period should not have the effect of depriving the body responsible for review procedures of the minimum time needed to act, in particular to extend the standstill period for the conclusion of the contract. It is thus necessary to provide for an independent minimum standstill period that should not end before the review body has taken a decision on the application. This should not prevent the review body from making a prior assessment of whether the review as such is admissible. Member States may provide that this period shall end either when the review body has taken a decision on the application for interim measures, including on a further suspension of the conclusion of the contract, or when the review body has taken a decision on the merits of the case, in particular on the application for the setting aside of an unlawful decision.
(13) In order to combat the illegal direct award of contracts, which the Court of Justice has called the most serious breach of Community law in the field of public procurement on the part of a contracting authority or contracting entity, there should be provision for effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions. Therefore a contract resulting from an illegal direct award should in principle be considered ineffective. The ineffectiveness should not be automatic but should be ascertained by or should be the result of a decision of an independent review body.
(14) Ineffectiveness is the most effective way to restore competition and to create new business opportunities for those economic operators which have been deprived illegally of their opportunity to compete. Direct awards within the meaning of this Directive should include all contract awards made without prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union within the meaning of Directive 2004/18/EC. This corresponds to a procedure without prior call for competition within the meaning of Directive 2004/17/EC.
(15) Possible justifications for a direct award within the meaning of this Directive may include the exemptions in Articles 10 to 18 of Directive 2004/18/EC, the application of Article 31, Article 61 or Article 68 of Directive 2004/18/EC, the award of a service contract in accordance with Article 21 of Directive 2004/18/EC or a lawful ‘in-house’ contract award following the interpretation of the Court of Justice.
(16) The same applies to contracts which meet the conditions for an exclusion or special arrangements in accordance with Article 5(2), Articles 18 to 26, Articles 29 and 30 or Article 62 of Directive 2004/17/EC, to cases involving the application of Article 40(3) of Directive 2004/17/EC or to the award of a service contract in accordance with Article 32 of Directive 2004/17/EC.
(17) A review procedure should be available at least to any person having or having had an interest in obtaining a particular contract and who has been or risks being harmed by an alleged infringement.
(18) In order to prevent serious infringements of the standstill obligation and automatic suspension, which are prerequisites for effective review, effective sanctions should apply. Contracts that are concluded in breach of the standstill period or automatic suspension should therefore be considered ineffective in principle if they are combined with infringements of Directive 2004/18/EC or Directive 2004/17/EC to the extent that those infringements have affected the chances of the tenderer applying for review to obtain the contract.
(19) In the case of other infringements of formal requirements, Member States might consider the principle of ineffectiveness to be inappropriate. In those cases Member States should have the flexibility to provide for alternative penalties. Alternative penalties should be limited to the imposition of fines to be paid to a body independent of the contracting authority or entity or to a shortening of the duration of the contract. It is for Member States to determine the details of alternative penalties and the rules of their application.
(20) This Directive should not exclude the application of stricter sanctions in accordance with national law.
(21) The objective to be achieved where Member States lay down the rules which ensure that a contract shall be considered ineffective is that the rights and obligations of the parties under the contract should cease to be enforced and performed. The consequences resulting from a contract being considered ineffective should be determined by national law. National law may therefore, for example, provide for the retroactive cancellation of all contractual obligations (ex tunc) or conversely limit the scope of the cancellation to those obligations which would still have to be performed (ex nunc). This should not lead to the absence of forceful penalties if the obligations deriving from a contract have already been fulfilled either entirely or almost entirely. In such cases Member States should provide for alternative penalties as well, taking into account the extent to which a contract remains in force in accordance with national law. Similarly, the consequences concerning the possible recovery of any sums which may have been paid, as well as all other forms of possible restitution, including restitution in value where restitution in kind is not possible, are to be determined by national law.
(22) However, in order to ensure the proportionality of the sanctions applied, Member States may grant the body responsible for review procedures the possibility of not jeopardising the contract or of recognising some or all of its temporal effects, when the exceptional circumstances of the case concerned require certain overriding reasons relating to a general interest to be respected. In those cases alternative penalties should be applied instead. The review body independent of the contracting authority or contracting entity should examine all relevant aspects in order to establish whether overriding reasons relating to a general interest require that the effects of the contract should be maintained.
(23) In exceptional cases the use of the negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice within the meaning of Article 31 of Directive 2004/18/EC or Article 40(3) of Directive 2004/17/EC is permitted immediately after the cancellation of the contract. If in those cases, for technical or other compelling reasons, the remaining contractual obligations can, at that stage, only be performed by the economic operator which has been awarded the contract, the application of overriding reasons might be justified.
(24) Economic interests in the effectiveness of a contract may only be considered as overriding reasons if in exceptional circumstances ineffectiveness would lead to disproportionate consequences. However, economic interests directly linked to the contract concerned should not constitute overriding reasons.
(25) Furthermore, the need to ensure over time the legal certainty of decisions taken by contracting authorities and contracting entities requires the establishment of a reasonable minimum period of limitation on reviews seeking to establish that the contract is ineffective.
(26) In order to avoid legal uncertainty which may result from ineffectiveness, Member States should provide for an exemption from any finding of ineffectiveness in cases where the contracting authority or contracting entity considers that the direct award of any contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union is permissible in accordance with Directives 2004/18/EC and 2004/17/EC and has applied a minimum standstill period allowing for effective remedies. The voluntary publication which triggers this standstill period does not imply any extension of obligations deriving from Directive 2004/18/EC or Directive 2004/17/EC.
(27) As this Directive strengthens national review procedures, especially in cases of an illegal direct award, economic operators should be encouraged to make use of these new mechanisms. For reasons of legal certainty the enforceability of the ineffectiveness of a contract is limited to a certain period. The effectiveness of these time limits should be respected.
(28) Strengthening the effectiveness of national review procedures should encourage those concerned to make greater use of the possibilities for review by way of interlocutory procedure before the conclusion of a contract. In those circumstances, the corrective mechanism should be refocused on serious infringements of Community law on public procurement.
(29) The voluntary attestation system provided for by Directive 92/13/EEC, whereby contracting entities have the possibility of having the conformity of their award procedures established through periodic examinations, has been virtually unused. It cannot thus achieve its objective of preventing a significant number of infringements of Community law on public procurement. On the other hand, the requirement imposed on Member States by Directive 92/13/EEC to ensure the permanent availability of bodies accredited for this purpose can represent an administrative maintenance cost which is no longer justified in the light of the lack of real demand by contracting entities. For these reasons, the attestation system should be abolished.
(30) Similarly, the conciliation mechanism provided for by Directive 92/13/EEC has not elicited any real interest from economic operators. This is due both to the fact that it does not of itself make it possible to obtain binding interim measures likely to prevent in time the illegal conclusion of a contract, and also to its nature, which is not readily compatible with observance of the particularly short deadlines applicable to reviews seeking interim measures and the setting aside of decisions taken unlawfully. In addition, the potential effectiveness of the conciliation mechanism has been weakened further by the difficulties encountered in establishing a complete and sufficiently wide list of independent conciliators in each Member State, available at any time and capable of dealing with conciliation requests at very short notice. For these reasons, the conciliation mechanism should be abolished.
(31) The Commission should be entitled to request Member States to provide it with information on the operation of national review procedures proportionate to the objective pursued by involving the Advisory Committee for Public Contracts in determining the extent and nature of such information. Indeed, only by making such information available will it be possible to assess correctly the effects of the changes introduced by this Directive at the end of a significant period of implementation.
(32) The Commission should review progress made in the Member States and report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the effectiveness of this Directive no later than three years after its deadline for implementation.
(33) The measures necessary for the implementation of Directives 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission(8).
(34) Since, for the reasons stated above, the objective of this Directive, namely improving the effectiveness of review procedures concerning the award of contracts falling within the scope of Directives 2004/18/EC and 2004/17/EC, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective, while respecting the principle of the procedural autonomy of the Member States.
(35) In accordance with point 34 of the Interinstitutional Agreement on better law-making(9), Member States should draw up, for themselves and in the interests of the Community, their own tables illustrating the correlation between this Directive and the transposition measures, and make them public.
(36) This Directive respects fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in particular by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. In particular, this Directive seeks to ensure full respect for the right to an effective remedy and to a fair hearing, in accordance with the first and second subparagraphs of Article 47 of the Charter.
(37) Directives 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC should therefore be amended accordingly,
HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Opinion of the European Parliament of 21 June 2007 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 15 November 2007.
OJ L 395, 30.12.1989, p. 33. Directive as amended by Directive 92/50/EEC (OJ L 209, 24.7.1992, p. 1).
OJ L 76, 23.3.1992, p. 14. Directive as last amended by Directive 2006/97/EC (OJ L 363, 20.12.2006, p. 107).
OJ L 134, 30.4.2004, p. 114. Directive as last amended by Directive 2006/97/EC.
OJ L 134, 30.4.2004, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Directive 2006/97/EC.
OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23. Decision as amended by Decision 2006/512/EC (OJ L 200, 22.7.2006, p. 11).