50At the outset, it should be recalled that Article 47(2) and Article 48(3) of Directive 2004/18 give an economic operator the right to rely on the economic and financial standing of the participants in the group or of other entities, as well as their technical and/or professional abilities, provided that it proves to the contracting authority that the group will have at its disposal the necessary resources to perform the contract. That directive thus permits the combining of the capacities of more than one economic operator for the purpose of satisfying the minimum capacity requirements set by the contracting authority, provided that the candidate or tenderer relying on the capacities of one or more other entities proves to that authority that it will actually have at its disposal the resources of those entities necessary for the execution of the contract. Such an interpretation is consistent with the objective pursued by the directives in this area of attaining the widest possible opening-up of public contracts to competition to the benefit of not only economic operators, but also contracting authorities. That interpretation also facilitates the involvement of small- and medium-sized undertakings in public contracts, an aim also pursued by Directive 2004/18, as stated in recital 32 thereof (see, to that effect, judgments of 10 October 2013, Swm Costruzioni 2 and Mannocchi Luigino, C‑94/12, EU:C:2013:646, paragraphs 29, 33 and 34, and of 2 June 2016, Pizzo, C‑27/15, EU:C:2016:404, paragraphs 25 to 27).
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