--- canonical: https://trinta.ai/blog/guide-eu-public-procurement-ted language: en updated: 2026-10-07 publisher: "TRINTA" publisher_url: https://trinta.ai --- # The Complete Guide to EU Public Procurement and TED Tenders > A complete guide to EU public procurement: how TED works, what tenders it publishes, how to search it well, and how AI speeds up tender discovery for SMEs. Source: https://trinta.ai/blog/guide-eu-public-procurement-ted · Published: 2026-03-03 · Category: EU · 8 min read Keywords: EU public procurement, TED tenders, OJEU tenders, European procurement guide, find EU tenders, CPV codes The European Union publishes over 700,000 tenders per year through a single official portal: TED, Tenders Electronic Daily. For any company looking to win public contracts in Europe, understanding how TED works is essential. ## What is TED? TED is the online version of the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union. It is the official publication point for all public procurement notices above certain financial thresholds across all 27 EU member states, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and several other countries. Every working day, TED publishes around 3,000 new procurement notices covering contract opportunities, award notices, prior information notices, and various other procurement documents. ## EU procurement thresholds Not every public contract must be published on TED. The EU sets financial thresholds above which publication is mandatory: - Central government authorities: EUR 140,000 for supplies and services - Sub-central authorities: EUR 216,000 for supplies and services - Utilities: EUR 432,000 for supplies and services - Works contracts: EUR 5,404,000 for all contracting authorities ## Types of procedures **Open procedure:** Any supplier can submit a bid. Most common for straightforward purchases. **Restricted procedure:** Suppliers first submit an expression of interest. Only shortlisted candidates are invited to tender. **Competitive dialogue:** Used for complex contracts where requirements cannot be defined in advance. **Negotiated procedure:** In specific circumstances, contracting authorities negotiate directly with suppliers. ## CPV codes: the key to effective searching The Common Procurement Vocabulary is a standardised classification system for public contracts. Every tender is tagged with CPV codes. Searching by CPV code is far more reliable than keyword search, it eliminates false positives and surfaces tenders you might otherwise miss. ## The volume problem 700,000 tenders per year means roughly 3,000 new tenders every working day. Manually reviewing this volume to find the handful relevant to your business is not realistic. This is why AI-powered platforms that integrate with the TED API have become essential tools for serious procurement teams. ## How AI solves the TED problem By integrating directly with the TED API, which provides structured access to all published notices, an AI system can process every new tender within hours of publication, score it against your company profile, and surface only the opportunities worth pursuing. The result: a procurement team that previously spent two hours per day monitoring TED can now spend those two hours writing stronger bids. ## Frequently asked questions **What is TED and what does it publish?** TED, or Tenders Electronic Daily, is the European Union's official journal supplement for public procurement. Every contract above the EU thresholds from the 27 member states must be published there. TED is authoritative but partial: below-threshold contracts, which are the majority by count, appear only on national portals, so TED alone understates a supplier's real EU opportunity. **What are CPV codes and why do they matter on TED?** CPV codes are the Common Procurement Vocabulary, a standard 8-digit classification that describes what a contract is buying. They are the main structured filter on TED, so getting your codes right determines which notices you ever see. The limitation is that buyers classify inconsistently, which is why code-based search alone still misses relevant contracts. **Which procedure types appear in EU tenders?** EU procurement runs mainly through open procedures, where anyone may bid directly, and restricted procedures, where suppliers are shortlisted first. Negotiated procedures and competitive dialogue exist for contracts whose specification cannot be fixed in advance. The procedure type is stated in the contract notice and determines whether you are submitting a bid or a request to participate. --- All guides: https://trinta.ai/blog · Site index for agents: https://trinta.ai/llms.txt