Press Release: Ombudsman: Commission unfairly excluded Italian company from €4 million tender

The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has criticised the European Commission for unfairly excluding an Italian company from a €4 million tender. This followed a complaint from the company which led a consortium that bid for an EU project concerning the harmonisation of energy policies between the EU and Russia. The Commission recalculated the consortium's bid without consulting the complainant. As a result of its recalculation, it wrongly concluded that the bid exceeded the maximum allowable budget of €4 million by 21 euros. On this basis, it excluded the bid from the tender.