Article 73. Competitive procedure with negotiation.

1. In competitive procedures with negotiation, any economic operator may submit a request to participate in response to a call for competition containing the information referred to in Annex II.6, Part I, letters B or C, providing the information requested by the contracting station. 2. In the tender documents, the contracting stations identify the object of the contract by providing a description of their needs, illustrating the characteristics required for the supplies, works or services to be contracted and specifying the criteria for the award of the contract. 'contract. They shall also specify which elements of the description define the minimum requirements that all tenderers must meet. 3. The information provided allows economic operators to identify the nature and scope of the procurement and decide whether to participate in the procedure. 4. The The minimum deadline for receiving requests to participate is ten days from the date of transmission of the tender notice pursuant to Article 84 or, if a pre-information notice is used as a means of calling for tenders, from the date of sending the invitation to confirm your interest. 5. The minimum deadline for receiving initial offers is twenty-five days from the date of transmission of the invitation. The terms referred to in paragraph 4 and in this paragraph are reduced in the cases provided for in article 72, paragraphs 4, 5 and 6. 6. Only economic operators invited by the contracting authority, following the evaluation of the information provided, can submit an initial offer. Except as provided for in paragraph 9, the initial and subsequent offers, excluding the final offer, may be negotiated to improve their content, except for aspects relating to the minimum requirements and award criteria. 7. If provided for in the in the tender notice, in the invitation to confirm interest or in another tender document and in application of the award criterion indicated therein, the competitive procedures with negotiation may take place in successive phases to reduce the number of offers to be negotiated. The contracting authority shall inform in writing all tenderers whose tenders have not been excluded of changes to the technical specifications or other tender documents other than those establishing the minimum requirements, allowing them sufficient time to amend and resubmit, where appropriate, modified offers. 8. When contracting authorities intend to conclude negotiations, they shall inform the other tenderers and establish a deadline within which new or modified offers may be submitted. They shall verify that the final offers comply with the minimum requirements prescribed by Article 107, evaluate the final offers based on the award criteria and award the contract in accordance with Articles 105, with regard to life cycle costs, 108 and 110, taking into account the life cycle costs governed by Annex II.8. 9. Contracting authorities may award contracts on the basis of initial offers without negotiation if they have indicated, in the contract notice or in the invitation to confirm interest, that reserve this possibility. EFFECTIVE FROM: 1 July 2023