1.

For service contracts, contracting authorities may use the negotiated procedure with a single tender in the following cases: where, for reasons of extreme urgency brought about by events which the contracting authorities could not have foreseen and which can in no way be attributed to them, the time limit for the procedures referred to in points (a), (b) and (c) of Article 104(1) of the Financial Regulation cannot be kept; where the services are entrusted to public-sector bodies or to non-profit institutions or associations and relate to activities of an institutional nature or designed to provide assistance to peoples in the social field; for services which are an extension of services already started, subject to the conditions laid down in paragraph 2; where the tender procedure or the attempt to use a framework contract has been unsuccessful, that is to say, where no qualitatively and/or financially worthwhile tender has been received, in which case, after cancelling the tender procedure, the contracting authority may negotiate with one or more tenderers of its choice, from among those that took part in the invitation to tender, provided that the original terms of the contract are not substantially altered; where the contract concerned follows a contest and must, under the rules applying, be awarded to the successful candidate or to one of the successful candidates, in which case, all successful candidates shall be invited to participate in the negotiations; where, for technical reasons, or for reasons connected with the protection of exclusive rights, the contract can be awarded only to a particular service provider; for contracts declared to be secret, or for contracts whose performance must be accompanied by special security measures or when the protection of the essential interests of the Union or the beneficiary country so requires; where a new contract has to be concluded after early termination of an existing contract. For the purposes of point (a) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph, operations carried out in crisis situations as referred to in Article 190(2) shall be considered to satisfy the test of extreme urgency. The authorising officer by delegation, where appropriate in concertation with the other authorising officers by delegation concerned, shall establish that a situation of extreme urgency exists and shall review his decision regularly with regard to the principle of sound financial management. Activities of an institutional nature referred to in point (b) of the first subparagraph include services directly linked to the statutory mission of the public sector bodies.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.