December 28 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria decided on Wednesday to launch a new tender for granting concession on Plovdiv Airport after no bids were received in the previous tender, the government said.
"The new procedure will be conducted in accordance with the European requirements for awarding concession contracts, which entered into force in April this year. This creates an opportunity to attract a wider range of potential investors," the government said in a press release following a weekly meeting.
The concession on the airport of Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv will be awarded for a period of 35 years.
The announcement of the tender procedure will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union. All documents related to the concession will be posted on the website of Bulgaria's transport ministry, the government said.
The initial deadline in the previous tender expired on June 15 and was extended to September 19.
The financial parameters of the tender included mandatory investment of at least 35.2 million euro ($36.6 million) during the 35-year term of the concession, of which a minimum of 16.8 million euro should have been made in the first five years.
In 2015, Plovdiv Airport, in sourthern Bulgaria, processed over 100,000 passengers.
The European Commission said earlier this month it opened infringement procedures against Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia due to those countries' failure to fully transpose into their national law one or more of the three new directives on public procurement and concessions.
The three directives, adopted in February 2014, aim at making public procurement in Europe more efficient and transparent, as well as making it easier and cheaper for SMEs to bid for public contracts, the Commission said in its December infringements package.
Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia have two months to notify the Commission of measures taken to bring national legislation in line with EU law or the countries might be referred to Court of Justice of the EU.
($= 0.9615 euro)