Financing of sea ports in the light of the adoption of the European Union Directive on the Award of Concession Contracts Cover Image

Financiranje morskih luka u svjetlu donošenja Direktive Europske unije o dodjeljivanju ugovora o koncesiji
Financing of sea ports in the light of the adoption of the European Union Directive on the Award of Concession Contracts

Author(s): Božena Bulum, Tomislav Batur, Ivana Oršulić
Subject(s): Maritime Law, Commercial Law
Published by: Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti
Keywords: sea ports;concession contract;state aid;EU Directive on the Award of Concession Contracts;

Summary/Abstract: Concession contract is a common legal act pursuant to which private undertakings are employed in European sea ports. Award of concession contracts is based on general legal principles of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union, such as transparency, equal treatment, free competition and non-discrimination. However, those contracts are presently subject to a limited number of European Union secondary-law provisions on public procurement. This situation has caused the occurrence of legal uncertainty for economic operators and barriers for their entrance into the concession market of the European Union. This gives rise to potentially serious distortions of the internal market of the European Union, such as direct awards of concessions without competition, with associated risks of national favouritism, fraud and corruption. This effectively means that EU citizens may not benefit from quality services at best prices. Therefore, on 20 December 2011, the European Commission brought a Proposal for a Directive on the award of concession contracts, which was sent to the European Parliament and the Council for adoption. The Proposal regulates the procedure for the award of concessions in the European Union and provides for an extension of the scope of application of Remedies Directives 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC in public procurement procedures on all kinds of concessions, including service concessions, for instance concessions for providing of port services.

  • Issue Year: 51/2012
  • Issue No: 166
  • Page Range: 137-171
  • Page Count: 35
  • Language: Croatian