EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS

Prague, Czechia

EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS 2022

issued. The first such decree No. 6 was issued on 23 rd February 2020 (GU Series Generale n. 45 del 29 March 2020) on the basis of which restrictions in the functioning of public administration were introduced, including courts, in particular court sessions were reduced (Article 2), universities, restaurants, and other public facilities were closed, and the Crisis Fund’s budget was increased by € 20 million for 2020. Another decree was issued by the President of Italy on 17 March 2020, No. 18 (GU Series Generale n.70 del 17 March 2020). The decree introduced financial support for health workers, thus encouraging them to increase the number of working hours. In both these decrees, no specific legal regulations concerning the public procurement regime were introduced. Finally, the decree of 28 March 2020 No. 19 necessary measures to solve the epidemiological threat situation related to COVID-19 (GU Series Generlae n. 79 del 25 March 2020) was issued. This legal act introduces numerous restrictions on the movement of people, including a ban on representatives of certain social groups, such as the elderly, from leaving their place of residence (Article 1). Organizing public or family events, such as weddings or funerals, was temporarily forbidden, public facilities, including sports facilities, were closed. The analysis of the above three legal acts show that in the early months of the pandemic, no specific regulations concerning possible changes to the public procurement regime were introduced in Italy. The subject regulated by the Italian legislature were issues related to limiting events which were an opportunity for the spread of the virus. The first legal regulations regarding the public procurement system appeared only in the decree-act n. 10 of 22 May 2020 – public procurement in the context of COVID-19. Further legal regulations in this regardwere included in the decree n. 18 of 2020 known as “Cura Italia”. Among other things, public authorities responsible for combating the effects of the pandemic could open bank accounts which would allow instant transfers. Concluding supply contracts from public funds could omit publishing information about the initiated public procurement procedure. Also, the purchase of ICT devices which are used by public administration, especially the health service, to fight the effects of the pandemic were excluded from the public procurement system. In this way, it will be possible to provide some medical services in the form of telemedicine indefinitely. The suspension of the application of certain public procurement rules during the pandemic in Italy was temporary and lasted until 31 December 2020 (Orabona, 2021, pp. 1–17). The normative solutions introduced in the above-analyzed legal acts were in principle compliant with the European Directive 2014/24 / EU.

231

Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog