(LUXEMBOURG) - Europe's top court ruled on Tuesday that Italy had broken EU laws by granting contracts to helicopter maker Agusta without putting them up for public tender.

Italy had awarded Agusta contracts to supply helicopters to departments like the fire brigade, forestry service and coast guard but under EU rules it should offer public tenders unless national security interests are involved.

"The purchase of equipment, the use of which for military purposes is hardly certain, must necessarily comply with the rules governing the award of public contracts," the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said in a statement.

The government in Rome has never contested that it directly granted the Italian helicopter maker contracts for the purchase of Agusta and Agusta Bell helicopters but it denies any wrong-doing.

The Luxembourg-based ECJ noted that while Agusta is a private company with government participation, "the Italian State cannot exercise over that company a control similar to that which it exercises over its own departments."

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