TITLE II

RULES ON PUBLIC CONTRACTS
CHAPTER III

Conduct of the procedure
Section 3

Choice of participants and award of contracts

General principles
Article 56
1
Contracts shall be awarded on the basis of criteria laid down in accordance with Articles 67 to 69, provided that the contracting authority has verified in accordance with Articles 59 to 61 that all of the following conditions are fulfilled:
a
the tender complies with the requirements, conditions and criteria set out in the contract notice or the invitation to confirm interest and in the procurement documents, taking into account, where applicable, Article 45;
b
the tender comes from a tenderer that is not excluded in accordance with Article 57 and that meets the selection criteria set out by the contracting authority in accordance with Article 58 and, where applicable, the non-discriminatory rules and criteria referred to in Article 65.
Contracting authorities may decide not to award a contract to the tenderer submitting the most economically advantageous tender where they have established that the tender does not comply with the applicable obligations referred to in Article 18(2).
2
In open procedures, contracting authorities may decide to examine tenders before verifying the absence of grounds for exclusion and the fulfilment of the selection criteria in accordance with Articles 57 to 64. Where they make use of that possibility, they shall ensure that the verification of absence of grounds for exclusion and of fulfilment of the selection criteria is carried out in an impartial and transparent manner so that no contract is awarded to a tenderer that should have been excluded pursuant to Article 57 or that does not meet the selection criteria set out by the contracting authority.
Member States may exclude the use of the procedure in the first subparagraph for, or restrict it to, certain types of procurement or specific circumstances.
3
Where information or documentation to be submitted by economic operators is or appears to be incomplete or erroneous or where specific documents are missing, contracting authorities may, unless otherwise provided by the national law implementing this Directive, request the economic operators concerned to submit, supplement, clarify or complete the relevant information or documentation within an appropriate time limit, provided that such requests are made in full compliance with the principles of equal treatment and transparency.
4
The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 87 to amend the list in Annex X, where necessary, to add new international agreements that have been ratified by all Member States or where the existing international agreements referred to are no longer ratified by all Member States or they are otherwise changed, for instance in respect of their scope, content or denomination.