Directive 2014/23/EU of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

Article 7 Contracting entities

1. For the purposes of this Directive, ‘contracting entities’ means entities which pursue one of the activities referred to in Annex II and award a concession for the pursuit of one of those activities, and which are one of the following:

(a) State, regional or local authorities, bodies governed by public law or associations formed by one or more such authorities or one or more such bodies governed by public law;

(b) public undertakings as defined in paragraph 4 of this Article;

(c) entities other than those referred to in points (a) and (b) of this paragraph, but which operate on the basis of special or exclusive rights, granted for the exercise of one of the activities referred to in Annex II.

2. Entities which have been granted special or exclusive rights by means of a procedure in which adequate publicity has been ensured and where the granting of those rights was based on objective criteria shall not constitute ‘contracting entities’ within the meaning of point (c) of paragraph 1. Such procedures shall include:

(a) procurement procedures with a prior call for competition in conformity with Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council(1) and Directive 2014/25/EU, Directive 2009/81/EC or this Directive;

(b) procedures pursuant to other legal acts of the Union listed in Annex III, ensuring adequate prior transparency for granting authorisations on the basis of objective criteria.

3. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 48 concerning amendments to the list of the Union legal acts set out in Annex III where necessary because of the repeal or amendment of those acts, or because of the adoption of new acts.

4. ‘Public undertaking’ means any undertaking over which the contracting authorities may exercise, directly or indirectly, a dominant influence by virtue of their ownership thereof, their financial participation therein, or the rules which govern it.

A dominant influence on the part of the contracting authorities shall be presumed in any of the following cases, in which those authorities, directly or indirectly:

(a) hold the majority of the undertaking’s subscribed capital;

(b) control the majority of the votes attaching to shares issued by the undertaking;

(c) can appoint more than half of the undertaking’s administrative, management or supervisory body.

(1)

Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on public procurement (see page 65 of this Official Journal).