“The European Commission has decided to send a reasoned opinion to Portugal for not complying with EU rules on public contracts with regard to subcontracting”, says the institution in a statement.

The community executive argues that “the Portuguese Public Contracts Code allows contracting entities to limit the part of a contract that can be subcontracted to another company”.

However, for the European Commission, “this rule is not in accordance with the directive, as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the European Union”, which is why the institution provided a reasoned opinion to the country.

Portugal now has two months to respond and adopt the necessary measures, and, if not, the European Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The directive in question aims to facilitate the participation of small and medium-sized companies and open competition in the public procurement market.

With regard to subcontracting, this European directive aims to “guarantee a certain degree of transparency”, it is further stated.