The company is asking the Lithuanian Court of Appeals to refer the matter to the Court of Justice for an opinion, saying that the dispute over the bypass project has raised so-far unaddressed issues regarding the application of EU directives to public procurement procedures in Lithuania.
“It is not just a matter of a single project. Lithuanian courts’ decisions may lay down the rules of the game that the whole road building sector of the country or even of the EU will follow in the future,” Genadijs Kamkalovs, chairman of the management board at Latvijas Tilti, said in a statement.
“Court decisions will determine whether the transparency bar in bidding processes in Lithuania remain lows, in the gray area that raises many doubts, or universally acceptable transparency standards are established,” he said.
Kamkalovs told BNS earlier that the terms and conditions of the tender process to select the contractor for Vilnius’ western bypass project restricted competition.
Kristina Petrosiene, spokeswoman for the Appeals Court, told BNS that the court would hear the case next Tuesday and the judge, therefore, would make no comment on it at the moment.
If the court decided to turn to the Court of Justice, the project, which is important for the Lithuanian capital, would stall for at least two years.
The Appeals Court in April temporarily suspended the tender process. The Vilnius Regional Court in early May decided to resume the procedures, but the ruling will take effect if the Appeals Court upholds it.
A consortium led by Kauno Tiltai (Kaunas Bridges) earlier this year was named the winner of the tender process, launched by the local authority of Vilnius, with an 89.692-million-euro bid.
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