Communication from the EFTA Surveillance Authority pursuant to Article 8(2) of the Act referred to in point 4 of Annex XVI to the EEA Agreement (Council Directive 93/38/EEC of 14 June 1993, coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors
Date: 2001-01-25
Institutions: EFTA Surveillance Authority
Subjects: award of contract, competition, liberalisation of the market, public contract, telecommunications

C 24/4

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

25.1.2001

EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA

EFTA SURVEILLANCE AUTHORITY

Communication from the EFTA Surveillance Authority pursuant to Article 8(2) of the Act referred
to in point 4 of Annex XVI to the EEA Agreement (Council Directive 93/38/EEC of 14 June 1993,
coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and
telecommunications sectors (1)

(2001/C 24/04)

List of services regarded as excluded from the scope the Act referred to in point 4 of Annex XVI to the
EEA Agreement, hereinafter referred to as the Directive, coordinating the procurement procedures of
entities operating in the water, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors pursuant to Article 8
thereof.

The Directive is applicable in particular to contracts awarded by telecommunications operators. However,
its constraints are no longer justified where there is effective competition after the recent liberalisation of
this sector. For this purpose Article 8 of the Directive lays down that where there is effective competition
in the telecommunications services market, the procurements for the provision of these services may be
exempted from the scope of the Directive.

In a notice published on 30 October 1999 in the Official Journal of the European Communities and in the EEA
Supplement, the EFTA Surveillance Authority invited contracting entities in the telecommunications sector
to notify it, under Article 8(2) of the Directive, of any telecommunications services they regarded as
excluded from the scope of that Directive, pursuant to Article 8(1) thereof, on the ground that other
entities were free to offer the same services in the same geographical area and substantially under the same
conditions (2).

The EFTA Surveillance Authority takes note of
implementing the relevant Acts underpinning the liberalisation of
within the EFTA pillar of the EEA.

the progress achieved by the EEA EFTA States in
the telecommunications markets

The analysis of the declarations of exemption from the contracting entities was based, on the one hand, on
the factors submitted by the operators as indicating the existence, as a matter of law and of fact, of a
competitive situation as referred to by the Court of Justice of the European Communities in its judgement
of 26 March 1996 in Case C-392/93: The Queen v. HM Treasury, ex parte British Telecommunications
plc. (3), in connection with the interpretation of the same article in an earlier directive (4) and, on the other,
on the progress achieved by the EEA EFTA States in implementing the regulations on telecommunications
and the tangible results in the EEA EFTA States telecommunications markets of effective application of the
measures transposed into national law. Liberalisation has now occurred in the telecommunications sector
and effective competition exists in most EEA EFTA States.

In view of the above, the EFTA Surveillance Authority is publishing,
for information purposes, the
following list of telecommunications services exempted from the scope of the Directive by virtue of
Article 8 thereof. The list will be updated according to developments in the conditions of effective
competition in the telecommunications markets in question. The effect of the applicability of Article
8(1)
is that purchases by the entities providing an excluded service within the geographical area
concerned will no longer be subject to the detailed provisions of the Directive.

(1) The Communication from the Commission pursuant to Article 8 of Directive 93/38/EEC was published in OJ C 156,

3.6.1999 (1999/C 156/03).

(2) Four contracting entities from the EEA EFTA States replied to the EFTA Surveillance Authority’s invitation.
(3) [1996] ECR, p. I-1631.
(4) Council Directive 90/531/EEC of 17 September 1990 on the procurement procedures of entities operating in the

water, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors (OJ L 297, 29.10.1990, p. 1).

25.1.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 24/5

The categorisation of the services has been done to facilitate the task of analysing competition and to help
telecommunications liberalisation on the application of
industry understand the practical
procurement rules. Taken together,
these categories
cover all of the telecommunications services referred to in Article 1(14) and (15) of the Directive and
comply with the terminology used in Article 1(4)(c)(ii) of that Directive.

the EFTA Surveillance Authority considers that

impact of

Category of services

Geographical areas exempted

Geographical areas not exempted

Public fixed telephony

Iceland, Norway

Liechtenstein

Public mobile telephony

Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein

Satellite service

Transmission
services

Iceland, Norway

of

data/value

added

Iceland, Norway

Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein