(2000/C 27 E/051) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1395/99
by Gerhard Schmid (PSE) to the Commission
(1 September 1999)
Subject: Management of Österreichisch-Bayerische Kraftwerke AG power stations
Österreichisch-Bayerische Kraftwerke AG (ÖBK) has given up managing its power stations independently
and assigned their management to Grenzkraftwerke GmbH Inn/Donau (GKW), which is owned byBayernwerk Wasserkraft AG and Österreichische Elektrizitätswirtschafts-AG. The transfer was made with-out a public invitation to bid.
As the companies involved are majority state-owned, I would ask the Commission:
1. Should there have been a public invitation to bid for the management of the ÖBK power stations? If
so, why, and if not, why not?
2. If so, what action will the Commission be taking?
Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission
(15 October 1999)
The award of a service contract by the österreichisch-bayerische Kraftwerke AG (ÖBK) falls under the
scope of application of Directive 93/38/EEC of the Council of 14 June 1993 on the coordination of theprocurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and telecommunicationssectors (
1) as amended by Directive 98/4/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 1998 (2),
if ÖBK is a contracting entity in the meaning of this directive, and the value of the contract equals orexceeds the threshold of the Directive.
It seems that the first condition has been fulfilled. ÖBK is a contracting entity in the meaning of Article 2
paragraph 1 of the Directive, that exercises an activity within the meaning of paragraph 2 a) ii), relating tothe provision or operation of fixed networks intended to provide a service to the public in connection withthe production, transport or distribution of electricity or the supply of electricity to such networks.
The Commission does not have elements enabling an assessment of the contract value. However, the
transfer of the management by ÖBK to the Grenzkraftwerke GmbH Inn/Donau  as addressed by theHonourable Member  can be defined, according to the Commission, as a service within in the meaningof Annex XVI B, category 27 (other services) of the Directive. Article 16 provides that these servicecontracts shall be awarded in accordance with Articles 18 and 24 of the Directive, which oblige the
contracting entity to communicate to the Commission every awarded contract which equals or exceeds the
threshold of the Directive, within two months of the award of the contract of the results of the awardingprocedure by means of notice.
The Commission is therefore of the opinion that for the transfer of the management by ÖBK to the
Grenzkraftwerke GmbH Inn/Donau no public invitation to tender was needed.
(1) OJ L 199, 9.8.1993.
(2) OJ L 101, 1.4.1998.
(2000/C 27 E/052) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1397/99
by Mathieu Grosch (PPE-DE) to the Commission
(1 September 1999)
Subject: Equivalence as regards conditions for entitlement to an early retirement pension
A German man resident in Belgium has worked and lived for approximately 12 years in Germany and
approximately 30 years in Belgium. In neither case was he a frontier worker, as he lived in the respectiveC 27 E/44 EN 29.1.2000 Official Journal of the European Communities