Action brought on 4 September 2017 — European Commission v Italian Republic

(Case C-526/17)

Language of the case: Italian

Parties

Applicant: European Commission (represented by: G. Gattinara, P. Ondrůšek and A. Tokár, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Italian Republic

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:

declare that, in deferring expiry of the works contract relating to the A12 Civitavecchia-Livorno motorway until 31 December 2046 without publishing any contract notice, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 2 and 58 of Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts (OJ 2004 L 134, p. 114), as subsequently amended;

order the Italian Republic to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The Commission considers that the extending until 31 December 2046 of the works contract relating to the A12 Civitavecchia-Livorno motorway constitutes an amendment to an essential term of that contract; being a substantial amendment to that contract, that extension is tantamount to concluding a new works contract and, as such, should have been made public through the publication of a contract notice. Since, however, no such publication has taken place, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 2 and 58 of Directive 2004/18/EC.

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