European Union – Public procurement. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of Directive (EC) 2004/17 and decided, among other things, that, as regards a public contract which was not covered by that directive, but which had a cross-border interest, arts 49 and 56 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be interpreted as precluding a provision of national law which provided that, where sub-contractors were relied on for the performance of a public works contract, the tenderer was required to carry out the main works itself, as defined by the contracting entity.