Judgment_paragraph 1 · Commission of the European Communities v Italian Republic (C-525/03)

1By its application the Commission of the European Communities requests the Court to declare that, by adopting Articles 1(2) and 2(1) to (3) of Ordinance No 3231 of the President of the Council of Ministers of 24 July 2002 introducing urgent measures for aerial forest firefighting on national territory (GURI No 177, 30 July 2002, p. 42; ‘the contested order’), which authorise recourse to private negotiations by way of derogation from the Community directives on public supply and service contracts and, in particular, from the common rules on advertising and participation laid down by Titles III and IV of Council Directive 93/36/EEC of 14 June 1993 coordinating procedures for the award of public supply contracts (OJ 1993 L 199, p. 1), as amended by Commission Directive 2001/78/EC of 13 September 2001 (OJ 2001 L 285, p. 1; ‘Directive 93/36’), and by Titles III and V of Council Directive 92/50/EEC of 18 June 1992 relating to the coordination of procedures for the award of public service contracts (OJ 1992 L 209, p. 1), as amended by Directive 2001/78 (‘Directive 92/50’), for the acquisition of aircraft to combat forest fires and for the acquisition of firefighting services and which similarly allow for recourse to the aforementioned procedure for the acquisition of technical and computer equipment and two-way radios, without any of the lawful conditions for derogation from those common rules being satisfied and, in any event, without ensuring any form of direct advertising such as to permit a competitive comparison between potential tenderers, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under the said Directives and Articles 43 EC and 49 EC.