Openbare aanbesteding: de overtredings procedures tegen Ierland betreffende contracten voor autosnelweg Dundalk mijden autosnelweg en dieren identificatieplaatjes (en)
The European Commission has decided to refer Ireland to the European Court of Justice over the award of a works contract for the Dundalk bypass motorway and its national legislation in the field of public procurement remedies. The Commission has also decided to send Ireland a formal request concerning the award of a contract for the supply of animal identification tags. This formal request takes the form of a "reasoned opinion", the second stage of the infringement procedure laid down in Article 226 of the EC Treaty. If there is no satisfactory reply within two months, the Commission may refer the matter to the European Court of Justice.
Dundalk bypass motorway
The Commission considers that in the framework of an award procedure by the National Roads Authority for designing, building, financing and operating the Dundalk bypass motorway, the contracting authority failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 1(1) of Directive 89/665/EEC as interpreted by the European Court of Justice and under Article 8(2) of Directive 93/37/EEC, because it did not notify the award decision to a tenderer in the award procedure.
Furthermore, the Commission takes the view that Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 1(1) of Directive 89/665/EEC as interpreted by the European Court of Justice, because it set the time limit under Article 84A of the Irish Rules of the Superior Courts (S.I. no. 374 of 1998) regulating the exercise of the right of tenderers to judicial review in public procurement procedures in a way which lacks legal certainty and thereby jeopardizes tenderers' right to an effective legal remedy, provided for by Directive 89/665/EEC.
Animal identification tags
The Commission has decided to send a reasoned opinion to the Irish government concerning the compatibility with Community law of the procedure for awarding a contract for the supply of animal identification tags by the Department of Agriculture and Food.
The Commission considers that the procedure for awarding the contract failed to respect the obligations under Article 53 of public procurement Directive 2004/18/EC, as well as the principles of equal treatment and transparency as interpreted by the European Court of Justice. This is because the contracting authority applied criteria relating to tenderers' ability to perform the contract in question as award criteria instead of selection criteria, and it applied weightings in the evaluation phase which modified the emphasis among the published award criteria.
The latest information on infringement proceedings concerning all Member States can be found at: