29

In those circumstances, Krajowa Izba Odwoławcza (National Appeal Chamber), decided to stay proceedings and to refer the following questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling: ‘(1) Can Article 48(3) of Directive 2004/18 in conjunction with Article 2 thereof, be interpreted, where it states that “where appropriate” an economic operator may rely on the capacities of other entities, as covering any situation where a particular economic operator does not have the skills required by the contracting authority and wishes to rely on the capacities of other entities? Or must the indication that an economic operator may rely on the resources of other entities only “where appropriate” be regarded as a restriction indicating that such reliance may be had only exceptionally and not as a rule when providing evidence of the skills of economic operators in procedures for the award of public contracts? (2) Can Article 48(3) of Directive 2004/18, in conjunction with Article 2 thereof, be interpreted as meaning that reliance by an economic operator on the capacities of other entities in terms of their knowledge and experience “regardless of the legal nature of the links which it has with them” and “having at its disposal the resources” of those entities denote that during performance of the contract an economic operator need not have links with those entities or can have very loose and vague links, that is to say, it can perform the contract independently (without the involvement of another entity) or such participation can consist of “advice”, “consultation”, “training” and the like? Or must Article 48(3) be interpreted as meaning that the entity on whose capacities the economic operator relies must actually and personally perform the contract in so far as its capacities were declared? (3) Can Article 48(3) of Directive 2004/18, in conjunction with Article 2 thereof, be interpreted as meaning that an economic operator which has its own experience but to a lesser degree than it would like to indicate to the contracting authority (for example, insufficient experience to submit a tender for the whole contract) may rely additionally on the capacities of other entities to improve its situation in the procedure? (4) Can Article 48(3) of Directive 2004/18, in conjunction with Article 2 thereof, be interpreted as meaning that in the contract notice or the tendering specifications the contracting authority can (or even must) lay down the rules under which the economic operator may rely on the capacities of other entities, for example in what way the economic operators must participate in the performance of the contract, in what way the capacity of the economic operator and another entity can be combined, and whether the other entity will bear joint and several liability with the economic operator for the due performance of the contract in so far as the economic operator has relied on its capacities? (5) Does the principle of equal and non-discriminatory treatment of economic operators set out in Article 2 of Directive 2004/18 allow reliance on the capacities of another entity under Article 48(3) where the capacities of two or more entities which do not have the capacities in terms of knowledge and experience required by the contracting authority are combined? (6) Therefore, does the principle of equal and non-discriminatory treatment of economic operators set out in Article 2 of Directive 2004/18 allow an interpretation of Articles 44 and 48(3) of Directive 2004/18 to the effect that the conditions for participation in the procedure that are laid down by the contracting authority may be fulfilled just formally for the purposes of participating in the procedure and regardless of the actual skills of the economic operator? (7) Where it is permitted to submit a tender for lots, does the principle of equal and non-discriminatory treatment of economic operators set out in Article 2 of Directive 2004/18 allow an economic operator, after the submission of tenders, to state — for example in the context of the supplementing or explaining of documents — to which lot the resources specified by it in order to prove that the conditions for participation in the procedure have been fulfilled are to be assigned? (8) Do the principle of equal and non-discriminatory treatment of economic operators and the principle of transparency set out in Article 2 of Directive 2004/18 allow an auction which has been carried out to be annulled and an electronic auction to be repeated where it was carried out improperly in an essential respect, for example where not all economic operators which submitted admissible tenders were invited to participate? (9) Do the principle of equal and non-discriminatory treatment of economic operators and the principle of transparency set out in Article 2 of Directive 2004/18 allow a contract to be awarded to an economic operator whose tender was selected as a result of such an auction without it being repeated, where it is not possible to determine whether or not the participation of the economic operator which was not taken into consideration would have altered the result of the auction? (10) In interpreting the provisions of Directive 2004/18, is it permitted to use as a guide to interpretation the content of the provisions of Directive 2014/24 and of the preamble thereto, even though the period for implementing it has not expired, in so far as it explains certain assumptions and intentions of the EU legislature and is not contrary to Directive 2004/18?’