Title and reference

Order of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 31 March 2023.
ASADE - Asociación Estatal de Entidades de Servicios de Atención a Domicilio v Consejería de Sanidad de la Diputación General de Aragón.
Reference for a preliminary ruling – Article 53(2) and Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice – Purely internal situation – Public procurement – Directive 2014/24/EU – Articles 74 to 77 – Provision of social and health services – Use of concerted action agreements with private non-profit organisations – Services in the internal market – Directive 2006/123/EC – Scope – Article 2(2)(f) and (j).
Case C-676/20.

Order of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 31 March 2023.
ASADE - Asociación Estatal de Entidades de Servicios de Atención a Domicilio v Consejería de Sanidad de la Diputación General de Aragón.
Request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Aragón.
Reference for a preliminary ruling – Article 53(2) and Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice – Purely internal situation – Public procurement – Directive 2014/24/EU – Articles 74 to 77 – Provision of social and health services – Use of concerted action agreements with private non-profit organisations – Services in the internal market – Directive 2006/123/EC – Scope – Article 2(2)(f) and (j).
Case C-676/20.

ECLI identifier: ECLI:EU:C:2023:289

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Summary

Order of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 31 March 2023 –
ASADE

(Case C‑676/20) ( 1 )

(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Article 53(2) and Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice – Purely internal situation – Public procurement – Directive 2014/24/EU – Articles 74 to 77 – Provision of social and health services – Use of concerted action agreements with private non-profit organisations – Services in the internal market – Directive 2006/123/EC – Scope – Article 2(2)(f) and (j))

Questions referred for a preliminary ruling – Admissibility – Need to provide the Court with sufficient information regarding the factual and legislative context – Scope of the obligation in the context of the fundamental freedoms – Question raised concerning a dispute confined within a single Member State – No indication as to the connecting factor making the requested interpretation necessary to resolve the dispute – Manifest inadmissibility

(Art. 267 TFEU; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 94)

(see paragraph 36)

Approximation of laws – Procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts – Directive 2014/24 – Award of contracts – Principles of equal treatment of tenderers and transparency – Scope – Provision of social and health services of general interest – Public procurement procedures reserved for certain categories of economic operators – Maximum duration of the contract longer than three years – Use of concerted action agreements with private non-profit organisations – Reimbursement of the costs incurred by the service provider – Whether permissible – Conditions

(European Parliament and Council Directive 2014/24, Arts 75 to 77 and Annex XIV)

(see paragraphs 43-56, 59, operative part)

3.	Questions referred for a preliminary ruling – Admissibility – Need for a preliminary ruling and relevance of the questions referred – Assessment by the national court – Presumption of relevance of the questions referred (Art. 267 TFEU) (see paragraph 61)

Freedom of establishment – Freedom to provide services – Services in the internal market – Directive 2006/123 – Scope – Healthcare services and social services not falling within the scope – Definition – Concerted healthcare services and supplies and certain healthcare-support and collaboration services, such as transport to healthcare institutions or patient support – Included – Consequences – Exclusion from the scope of the directive

(European Parliament and Council Directive 2006/123, Art. 2(2)(f) and (j))

(see paragraphs 62, 63, 65-70)

Questions referred for a preliminary ruling – Jurisdiction of the Court – Limits – Manifestly irrelevant question – Question unrelated to the subject matter of the dispute in the main proceedings – Manifest inadmissibility

(Art. 267 TFEU; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 53(2))

(see paragraphs 64, 71-73)

Operative part

Articles 76 and 77 of Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on public procurement and repealing Directive 2004/18/EC

must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation that reserves for non-profit organisations the right to conclude, in accordance with the principles of advertising, competition and transparency, agreements under which those organisations provide social or health services of general interest, in return for reimbursement of the costs they incur, irrespective of the estimated value of those services, where the purpose of those agreements is to achieve objectives of solidarity, without necessarily improving the adequacy or budgetary efficiency of the provision of those services by comparison with the regime that is generally applicable to public-procurement procedures, provided,

–	first, that the legal and contractual framework within which the activity of those organisations is carried out contributes effectively to the social purpose and objectives of solidarity and budgetary efficiency on which that legislation is based, and

–	secondly, that the principle of transparency, as specified in particular in Article 75 of that directive, is respected.

( 1 ) OJ C 138, 19.4.2021.

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