1. Contracting authorities intending to award a public contract for the services referred to in Article 74 shall make known their intention by any of the following means:

(a) by means of a contract notice, which shall contain the information referred to in Annex V Part H, in accordance with the standard forms referred to in Article 51; or

(b) by means of a prior information notice, which shall be published continuously and contain the information set out in Annex V Part I. The prior information notice shall refer specifically to the types of services that will be the subject of the contracts to be awarded. It shall indicate that the contracts will be awarded without further publication and invite interested economic operators to express their interest in writing.

The first subparagraph shall, however, not apply where a negotiated procedure without prior publication could have been used in conformity with Article 32 for the award of a public service contract.