L 188/28 Official Journal of the European Union 16.7.2008 COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 7 July 2008 exempting the production of electricity in Austria from the application of Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors (notified under document number C(2008) 3382) (Only the German text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2008/585/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors (), and in particular Article 30(4) and (6) thereof, Having regard to the request submitted by the Republic of Austria by e-mail of 10 January 2008, After consulting the Advisory Committee for Public Contracts, Whereas: I. FACTS (), On 10 January 2008, Austria transmitted a request pursuant to Article 30(4) of Directive 2004/17[EC to the Commission by e-mail. The Commission requested additional information by e-mail of 4 February 2008, which, following a prolongation of the initial deadline, was transmitted by the Austrian authorities by e-mail of 29 February 2008. () O] L 134, 30.4.2004, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 213/2008 (O] L 74, 15.3.2008, p.- 1). (2)  The request submitted by the Republic of Austria concerns production of electricity. (3)  The request is accompanied by a letter from the inde- pendent national authority, E-Control (Energie-Control GmbH, the regulator of the Austrian electricity and natural gas markets), which limits itself to a statement that “... no objection exists against an exemption from the application of Public Procurement Law in the field of electricity generation. II. LEGAL FRAMEWORK (4)  Article 30 of Directive 2004/17/EC provides that contracts intended to enable the performance of one of the activities to which the Directive applies shall not be subject to the Directive if, in the Member State in which it is carried out, the activity is directly exposed to compe- tition on markets to which access is not restricted. Direct exposure to competition is assessed on the basis of objective criteria, taking account of the specific charac- teristics of the sector concerned. Access is deemed to be unrestricted if the Member State has implemented and applied the relevant Community legislation opening a given sector or a part of it. This legislation is listed in Annex XI of Directive 2004/17/EC, which, for the elec- tricity sector, refers to Directive 96/92/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 1996 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity (). Directive 96/92/EC has been superseded by Directive 2003/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2003 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity and repealing Directive 96/92/EC (?), which requires an even higher degree of market opening. () 0] L 27, 30.1.1997, p. 20. () OJ L 176, 15.7.2003, p. 37. Directive as last amended by Directive 2008[3/EC (O] L 17, 22.1.2008, p. 6).