Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2001:686
Date: 2001-12-13
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Right of establishment;Approximation of laws;Freedom to provide services
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Finland

SUMMARY — CASE C-513/99 
Summary of the Judgment 
Approximation of laws — Procedures for the award of public service contracts — 
Directive 92/50 — Award of contracts — Most economically advantageous tender — 
Criteria — Protection of the environment — Whether permissible — Conditions — 
Criterion which can be satisfied only by a few undertakings, one of which belongs to 
the contracting entity — No effect — Same result if Directive 93/38 applicable 
(Council Directives 92/50, Art. 36(1)(a), and 93/38, Art. 34(1)(a)) 
Article 36(1)(a) of Directive 92/50 relating 
to the coordination of procedures for the 
award of public service contracts must be 
interpreted as meaning that where, in the 
context of a public contract for the provi­
sion of urban bus transport services, the 
contracting authority decides to award a 
contract to the tenderer who submits the 
economically most advantageous tender, it 
may take into consideration ecological 
criteria such as the level of nitrogen oxide 
emissions or the noise level of the buses, 
provided that they are linked to the subject-
matter of the contract, do not confer an 
unrestricted freedom of choice on the 
authority, are expressly mentioned in the 
contract documents or the tender notice, 
and comply with all the fundamental 
principles of Community law, in particular 
the principle of non-discrimination. 
Moreover, the principle of equal treatment 
does not preclude the taking into consider­
ation of such criteria solely because the 
contracting entity's own transport under­
taking is one of the few undertakings able 
to offer a bus fleet satisfying those criteria. 
It would be no different if the procedure for 
the award of the public contract in question 
fell within the scope of Directive 93/38 
coordinating the procurement procedures 
of entities operating in the water, energy, 
transport and telecommunications sectors. 
Since the directives concerning public pro­
curement, whose provisions relating to 
award criteria have substantially the same 
wording, aim to achieve similar objectives 
in their respective fields, and the duty to 
observe the principle of equal treatment lies 
at the very heart of those directives, there is 
no reason to give them different interpre­
tations. 
(see paras 69, 86, 88-93, 
operative part 1-3) 
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