26.9.2009   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 233/10

1.

Must the provisions of Directive 2004/18/EC (1) on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts that are referred to in section 10 [of the order for reference] be interpreted as precluding a temporary grouping of undertakings, the members of which include a State agency of the kind described in section 12 [of the order for reference], from taking part in a tendering procedure for the award of a contract for a service such as the documentation, dissemination and implementation of the ‘Homogeneous System of Visual Identity of the Cultural Sites and Institutions: Cultural Heritage of Sardinia’, the subject of the tendering procedure advertised by the Sardinia Region?

2.

Are the provisions of Italian law contained in Article 3(22) and (19) of the Public Contracts Code, enacted by Legislative Decree No 163/2006 (which provide, respectively, that ‘the term “economic operator” shall include a contractor, supplier, service provider or a group or consortium of these’ and ‘the terms “contractor”, “supplier” and “service provider” shall mean any natural or legal person, or body without legal personality, including a European Economic Interest Group (EEIG) formed pursuant to Legislative Decree No 240 of 23 July 1991, which “offers on the market”, respectively, the execution of works or a work, the supply of products or the provision of services’), and in Article 34 of that Public Contracts Code (which lists the entities allowed to participate in public procurement procedures) contrary to Directive 2004/18/EC if interpreted as restricting participation in tendering procedures to professional providers of such services and as excluding public entities the primary objects of which are not-for-profit, such as research?