The European Commission has sent today a reasoned opinion to Italy about a possible violation of Single Market rules requiring public procurement contracts to be awarded under transparent, open and competitive conditions. The reasoned opinion, which is the second stage of formal infringement procedures under Article 169 of the EC Treaty, concerns the conditions under which the contract for the design of a new railway station in Bologna was attributed. In the absence of a satisfactory response from the Italian authorities to the reasoned opinion within two months of receipt, the Commission could decide to refer the matter to the European Union's Court of Justice.

In the Commission's opinion, 'Metropolis S.p.A.', a company wholly-owned by the national railway company ('Ferrovie dello Stato S.p.A.'), failed to respect the requirements of the Directive on procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors (93/38/EEC) when it awarded a series of contracts for the architectural design of both the main station and a station for high speed trains of Bologna. In particular, the contracts were awarded directly without following the procedure laid down by the Directive for inviting competitive bids. The Directive does provide for direct award of contracts under certain specific conditions, but these conditions were not met in this case. The Italian authorities' response to the letter of formal notice sent in June 1998 was not satisfactory.

Source:
RAPID
02 / 03 / 1999