Scope
Article 2
1. The ECB shall award supply, service, works and concession contracts for its own account in accordance with this Decision. 2. The ECB may also carry out in accordance with this Decision joint tender procedures for its own account and on behalf of one or more national central banks (NCBs), national supervisory authorities, Union institutions and bodies and/or international organisations. In such cases, the ECB shall specify in the procurement documents: (a) the other participating contracting authorities; and (b) the envisaged structure of the contractual relationships. 3. This Decision shall not apply to: (a) cooperation agreements: (i) that serve the fulfilment of the public tasks of the Eurosystem or the European System of Central Banks, which are entered into by the ECB and NCBs; or (ii) that serve the fulfilment of public tasks, which are entered into by the ECB and other Union institutions and bodies, international organisations or public authorities; where the cooperation is governed solely by considerations relating to the public interest, in particular the achievement of common, non-commercial objectives and the parties perform less than 20 % of the relevant activities on the open market; (b) procurement procedures in which the ECB participates organised by any of the following: (i) Union institutions and bodies; (ii) international organisations; or (iii) public authorities, in each case provided that the rules governing these procurement procedures are in line with the general principles of Union procurement law; (c) the procurement of banknotes, which is governed by Guideline (EU) 2015/280 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2014/44) ( 8 ) ; (d) the issue, sale, purchase or transfer of securities or other financial instruments and financial services in connection with these transactions; (e) the acquisition or rental, by whatever financial means, of land, existing buildings or other immovable property or concerning rights thereon; (f) employment contracts between the ECB and its staff concluded in accordance with the ECB's Conditions of Employment; (g) arbitration and conciliation services; (h) research and development services unless the benefits related to the services accrue exclusively to the ECB for its own use and the services provided are remunerated by the ECB; (i) contracts for broadcasting time or programme provision that are awarded to audiovisual or radio media services providers; (j) contracts relating to the legal representation of the ECB during or in preparation for court or arbitration proceedings and contracts for the exclusive services of notaries, trustees and court officials; (k) public passenger transport services by rail or metro. 4. This Decision shall not apply to contracts between the ECB and a legal person governed by private or public law over which the ECB exercises control similar to that which it exercises over its own business units, where more than 80 % of the legal person's activities are carried out in the performance of tasks entrusted to it by the ECB and there is no direct private capital participation that ensures a controlling interest in that legal person. 5. In exceptional cases, the ECB may conduct procedures for the selection of natural persons to serve as members on high-level advisory boards assisting the ECB in the fulfilment of its tasks. Such experts shall receive a fixed allowance set in advance, which shall not exceed per expert the threshold set in Article 4(3)(a). They shall be selected on the basis of their professional expertise, using selection criteria that follow the general principles outlined in Article 3. The ECB may adopt a specific decision that sets out in greater detail the procedure and conditions for selection. 6. This Decision shall apply to the following contracts subsidised directly by the ECB by more than 50 %: (a) works contracts the estimated value of which, net of VAT, is equal to or exceeds the threshold amount set out in Article 4(3) for works contracts, and which have as their subject matter civil engineering activities or building work for facilities intended to be used for administrative, sports, health, recreation and leisure or school and university purposes; (b) service contracts which are connected to a works contract referred to in point (a) the estimated value of which, net of VAT, is equal to or exceeds the threshold amount set out in Article 4(3) for service contracts. The ECB shall ensure that such contracts are awarded in accordance with this Decision, even if such contracts are awarded by another entity or if the ECB awards such contracts on behalf of another entity. 7. Mixed contracts whose scope comprises deliverables attributable to different types of contracts shall be awarded in accordance with the rules and provisions applicable to the deliverable that forms the main subject matter of the contract. The main subject matter of a mixed contract shall be determined by the deliverable with the highest estimated value, unless there are exceptional circumstances requiring that another deliverable, due to its specific qualities, should form the main subject matter of the contract.