Action brought on 29 April 2004 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Republic of Finland

(Case C-195/04)

(2004/C 179/08)

An action against the Republic of Finland was brought before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 29 April 2004 by the Commission of the European Communities, represented by K. Wiedner and M. Huttunen, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg.

The Commission claims that the Court should:

Pleas in law and main arguments

Although the Community directives concerning public procurement do not apply to contracts whose value is less than their threshold of application, fundamental provisions of the EC Treaty must be complied with, in particular the principle of non-discrimination, which includes the obligation of publicity.

The Court of Justice has held that, even though certain contracts concerning public procurement are outside the scope of the procurement directives, the procurement authorities which conclude them must nevertheless comply with the fundamental provisions of the Treaty. Even though the Community legislature considered that the detailed procedures laid down in the directives concerning public procurement are not regarded as applicable to public contracts below the threshold values in accordance with those provisions, that alone does not mean, however, that such procurement contracts do not fall within the scope of Community law.

The case-law clearly shows that a procurement must be made public to a reasonable extent and that that obligation of publicity must be complied with even in the case of contracts whose estimated values are below the threshold of application of the EC procurement directives.