Press Release: Public contracts: the Commission refers Spain to the Court of Justice concerning the joint ventures set up by the publicly owned company IVVSA

The European Commission decided to take Spain to the European Court of Justice regarding the joint ventures set up by the publicly owned company IVVSA. In this instance, the Commission considered that, by setting up joint ventures, IVVSA had, in some cases, awarded public procurement contracts to those joint ventures in contravention of certain provisions of Directives 92/50/EEC, 93/37/EEC and 93/36/EEC (now consolidated and amended by Directive 2004/18/EC) and in violation of the principle of equal treatment referred to in those Directives and in Articles 43 and 49 of the EC Treaty.