country/-ies of establishment and the delegation(s) of the authorisation to sign as described in  In a competitive procedure with negotiation any interested economic operator (any natural or  legal person who offers to supply products, provide services) may submit a  request to participate ( step 1 ) but only the selected candidates are invited to submit a  tender  ( step 2 ).  Economic operators can request to participate and subsequently submit a tender either as a sole  economic operator (sole candidate/tenderer) or as a group of economic operators (joint tender).  In either case subcontracting is permitted. In order to fulfil the selection criteria set out in  Section 3.2  the economic operator can rely on  the capacities of subcontractors or other entities that are not subcontractors.  The role of each entity involved in a request to participate/tender (hereafter referred to as  “ involved entity ”) must be clearly specified in the cover letter: i) sole candidate, ii)  Group leader of a group of economic operators, iii) member of a group of economic operators, or iv)  subcontractor. For an entity on whose capacities the candidate relies to fulfil the selection criteria  (that is not a subcontractor), this role is defined in the commitment letter ( Annex 6.2 ). This  applies also where the  involved entities  belong to the same economic group.  A joint tender is a situation where a request to participate/tender is submitted by a group (with or  without legal form) of economic operators regardless of the link they have between them. The  group as a whole is considered a candidate/tenderer$^{3}$. All members of the group assume joint and several liability towards the  Contracting authority for the performance of the contract as a whole. Group members must appoint a  Group leader  and a single point of contact authorised to act  on their behalf in connection with the submission of the request to participate/tender and all  relevant questions, clarification requests, notifications, etc., that may be received during the  evaluation, award and until the contract signature. The model power of attorney attached in  Annex 4  is to be used . 2.3.1. Joint tenders  Section 4.4 . 2.3. Ways to submit a tender: how can economic operators organise themselves to  submit a tender?  3 References to  candidate / tenderer or  candidates/tenderers in this document shall be understood as covering  both sole candidates/tenderers and groups of economic operators seeking to submit or submitting a joint tender.  Page 7 of 32  TEMPLATE: Restricted procedure - Tender specifications Part 1 Administrative Specifications  JRC R.9 - IMS-JRC-S3.1-TMP-0048 - v.1.0 17/02/2020 M(EN) 