What is TED?
TED — Tenders Electronic Daily — is the online version of the "S Series" Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union, the part dedicated to European public procurement. It is run by the Publications Office of the European Union in Luxembourg, and it is the single legally mandated publication point for all public contracts that exceed EU thresholds across the 27 member states plus the EEA countries (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein).
TED is not a transactional platform. It is a notice aggregator: contracting authorities are obliged to send their above-threshold notices to TED so the whole single market can see them. The full tender dossier and the bid submission almost always happen on a national e-procurement platform that the notice links to — PLACE in France, e-Vergabe in Germany, TenderNed in the Netherlands, eSender hubs and dozens of regional systems. TED is where you discover the opportunity; the national platform is where you act on it.
TED publishes hundreds of thousands of notices a year, in all 24 official EU languages. Access is completely free, and no account is required to read or search. An optional free EU Login account unlocks saved searches and email alerts.
What you find on TED:
- Contract notices — open, restricted, negotiated, and competitive-dialogue procedures above threshold
- Prior information notices (PIN) — early signals of upcoming procurements, useful for pipeline planning
- Contract award notices (CAN) — who won, at what value — invaluable competitive intelligence
- Corrigenda — corrections, deadline extensions, and clarifications to live notices
- Design contests, concessions, and utilities notices under their separate regimes
Key fact
EU public procurement is worth roughly EUR 2 trillion a year — around 14% of EU GDP. TED carries the above-threshold slice of that market, and a single TED search reaches buyers in 30+ countries simultaneously. No other procurement source offers that breadth from one query.
EU procurement thresholds
The defining concept in EU procurement is the threshold. Contracts above the threshold must follow the formalised EU directives and be advertised EU-wide on TED. Contracts below threshold are governed by national rules and usually published only on domestic portals.
Thresholds are revised every two years by the European Commission to track the WTO GPA exchange rates. Vendors should always confirm the current values in the latest Commission delegated regulation, but the structure is stable:
| Contract type | Approximate threshold | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Supplies & services (central government) | ~ EUR 140,000 | Ministries and central state bodies |
| Supplies & services (sub-central) | ~ EUR 215,000 | Regional and local authorities |
| Works | ~ EUR 5.4 million | All contracting authorities |
| Utilities (water, energy, transport, postal) | ~ EUR 430,000 supplies/services | Special-sector contracting entities |
| Social & specific services | ~ EUR 750,000+ | Light-touch regime under the directives |
Two practical notes: (1) figures shown here are indicative — always check the regulation in force. (2) Below-threshold contracts can still be very large in aggregate, but you will only find them on national portals, not on TED.
eForms and the new TED data model
The biggest recent change to TED is the migration from the old standard forms to eForms — standardised, machine-readable notice templates now mandatory across the EU. Each eForms notice carries structured fields for CPV codes, estimated value, deadlines, the buyer's identity, the procedure type, and a unique notice identifier.
For vendors, this is a meaningful upgrade. Under the old free-text forms, key data was buried in prose and inconsistent between countries. eForms expose the same fields in the same structure regardless of which member state published the notice — which makes automated monitoring and CRM import far more reliable. TED also offers an open API and bulk daily data packages built on this model, so the entire feed can be consumed programmatically.
Who buys through TED?
Because TED aggregates every above-threshold notice in the EU/EEA, the buyer universe is enormous. A representative slice:
EU institutions
Commission, Parliament, agencies (EMA, EUIPO, Frontex) — pan-European supplies, IT, consulting
National ministries
Defence, health, interior, transport across all 27 member states
Regional & local authorities
Länder, régions, comuni, provinces — the largest volume by notice count
Healthcare systems
Hospitals and national health services — pharma, devices, IT
Utilities
Energy, water, rail and transport operators under the utilities directive
Universities & research
Equipment, lab supplies, IT, Horizon-funded procurement
State-owned enterprises
Postal operators, airports, ports, public broadcasters
Defence & security bodies
Under the separate defence procurement directive
How foreign vendors register and bid
There is no "TED registration" — TED is read-only and free. The work happens on the national platform each notice links to. The typical path for a foreign vendor:
- Find the notice on TED and read the eligibility, deadline, and procedure sections carefully.
- Follow the link to the national e-procurement platform (PLACE, e-Vergabe, TenderNed, etc.) and create an account there. Registration is generally free.
- Prepare an ESPD / DUME — the European Single Procurement Document. This standardised self-declaration of eligibility and capacity is accepted across every EU portal and is the single most useful document for cross-border bidders.
- Obtain a qualified electronic signature — an eIDAS-compliant certificate is usually required to sign and submit bids electronically.
- Check GPA/IPI status — confirm your country has guaranteed access for that contract type before investing effort.
- Provide proof of registration in your home country — most authorities accept national company registration at bid stage and only require local tax registration at contract signing.
How to search TED effectively
TED's expert search supports filtering by CPV code, country, notice type, procedure, publication date, and deadline. To find signal faster:
- Lead with CPV codes (Common Procurement Vocabulary). One code identifies "software development services" regardless of whether the title is in German, Italian, or Finnish — CPV is the cross-language backbone of TED search.
- Use Prior Information Notices (PIN) to spot procurements months before the contract notice appears — early warning beats reacting to a 30-day deadline.
- Mine Contract Award Notices (CAN) for who won, at what value, against how many bidders. This is the single best free competitive-intelligence source in the EU.
- Distinguish publication date from submission deadline — only the deadline matters for pipeline planning.
- Filter by country and procedure type to focus on markets where you have GPA access and delivery capacity.
- Build saved searches and email alerts via your free EU Login — but be aware TED's native alerts are keyword-based and language-bound.
TED's main limitation is exactly that: keyword search across 24 languages means you miss notices framed in vocabulary you didn't think to query. Hook's semantic search bridges that gap — you query in English and get relevant notices from every member state.
Hook monitors all of TED for you
TED publishes hundreds of thousands of notices a year in 24 languages across 30+ countries. Hook indexes the full TED feed plus the national platforms behind it, lets you search in plain English, and alerts you the moment a relevant EU contract appears — with CPV, value, buyer, and deadline already structured.
Join the waitlist →Common pitfalls for cross-border EU bidders
- Treating TED as the submission point. You always bid on the national platform — budget time to register and obtain a signature certificate there.
- Ignoring the ESPD. Reissuing bespoke declarations per country wastes effort; a single reusable ESPD covers eligibility across the EU.
- Missing the GPA/IPI eligibility check. Non-EU bidders can be excluded from certain contracts — read the notice before committing.
- Underestimating language. The notice may be in the local language only; clarification questions and the bid often must be in that language too.
- Reacting only to contract notices. The pipeline edge is in PINs and award notices, not in the 30-day scramble after a contract notice drops.
Common questions about TED
What is TED and who runs it?
TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the online version of the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union, dedicated to European public procurement. It is operated by the Publications Office of the European Union (OP) in Luxembourg and is the single mandatory publication point for all above-threshold public contracts across the EU/EEA. Notices appear at ted.europa.eu within days of being sent by the contracting authority, and all content is free to access without registration.
Do I have to register to read or bid on TED tenders?
No registration is required to read TED notices — the entire archive is open and free. However, TED is a publication portal, not a transactional platform: you cannot submit a bid on TED itself. Each notice links back to the national e-procurement platform (e.g. PLACE in France, e-Vergabe in Germany, TenderNed in the Netherlands) where the full tender dossier lives and where bids are actually submitted. You register on that national platform, not on TED. You can, however, create a free EU Login account to set up email alerts and saved searches.
Can a non-EU company bid on a TED tender?
In most cases yes. EU procurement directives guarantee access to suppliers from EU/EEA states and from countries party to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) or a relevant bilateral agreement. For contracts and sectors not covered by the GPA — and increasingly under the International Procurement Instrument (IPI) and the Foreign Subsidies Regulation — contracting authorities may restrict or condition access for third-country bidders. Always read the notice's eligibility section and the relevant national rules before investing in a bid.
What are the EU procurement thresholds?
Thresholds determine whether a contract must be published EU-wide on TED. They are revised every two years by the European Commission. As a broad guide, the central-government thresholds sit around EUR 140,000 for supplies and services and several million euros for works, with higher figures for sub-central authorities and special rules for utilities, defence, and social/specific services. Below threshold, contracts are governed by national rules and published only domestically. Always verify the current figures in the latest Commission regulation before relying on them.
What are eForms and how do they change TED?
eForms are the standardised, machine-readable notice templates that replaced the older standard forms across the EU. Since the transition, all TED notices use eForms, which structure data in a consistent way and assign each notice a unique identifier. For vendors, eForms mean cleaner, more searchable metadata — CPV codes, deadlines, estimated values, and buyer details are all in defined fields rather than free text — which makes automated monitoring far more reliable.
How Hook helps vendors selling into the EU
Hook is an AI-powered search tool that indexes the full TED feed alongside the national platforms it links to. Instead of running 24-language keyword searches and juggling dozens of portals, you query in plain English.
Example queries Hook understands:
- "Show me cloud infrastructure tenders above EUR 1M closing this month across the EU"
- "Which national health services bought imaging equipment in the last year?"
- "Find prior information notices for cybersecurity in Germany, France, and the Netherlands"
- "Upcoming utilities framework renewals in rail across the EEA"
Hook returns structured results — notice reference, buyer, country, title, estimated value, procedure type, and deadline — ready to import into your CRM. One query, the whole single market.
Next: Read our country guides to BOAMP (France), e-Vergabe (Germany), and Consip (Italy), or browse more country guides.