La nozione di operatore economico e la partecipazione degli enti pubblici alle procedure di aggiudicazione dei contratti pubblici.

The aim of this paper is to provide a comparative perspective of the evolution of the notion of economic operator. This evolution gave rise to a number of different interpretations making more than difficult the qualification of the subjects admitted to the participation into the selection procedure of public tenders. The legislator and the Court of Justice of the EU, having imposed a "lato sensu" definition of economic operator, challenged the traditional definition of the national administrative jurisdiction, which opens participation of public bodies into public tenders. The analysis at the heart of this paper has the aim of 1) enlight the possible distorsions of the market, arising from the participation of public bodies to public tenders, 2) examine the potential effects of the exclusion of these bodies from public tenders and 3) assess the respect of public procurement law without incurring into a breach of competition rules.