1.For the purposes of this Directive, ‘contracting authorities’ means State, regional or local authorities, bodies governed by public law or associations formed by one or more such authorities or one or more such bodies governed by public law other than those authorities, bodies or associations which pursue one of the activities referred to in Annex II and award a concession for the pursuit of one of those activities.
2.‘Regional authorities’ includes all authorities of the administrative units listed non-exhaustively in NUTS 1 and 2, as referred to in Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council(1).
3.‘Local authorities’ includes all authorities of the administrative units falling under NUTS 3 and smaller administrative units, as referred to in Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003.
4.‘Bodies governed by public law’ means bodies that have all of the following characteristics:
(a)they are established for the specific purpose of meeting needs in the general interest, not having an industrial or commercial character;
(b)they have legal personality; and
(c)they are financed, for the most part, by the State, regional or local authorities, or by other bodies governed by public law; or are subject to management supervision by those bodies or authorities; or have an administrative, managerial or supervisory board, more than half of whose members are appointed by the State, regional or local authorities, or by other bodies governed by public law.
Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) (OJ L 154, 21.6.2003, p. 1).