How to bid abroad · Europe
Bidding in Belgium as a foreign company
Yes, on the same terms as a local firm.
Whether a company established in the EU may bid in Belgium is decided by one instrument, and this page names it rather than describing it.
Yes. A company established anywhere in the EU bids in Belgium on the same terms as a company established there, and a buyer that treats it differently is breaking the rule it is bound by. Above the EU thresholds the procurement directives apply directly. Below them the Treaty principles of equal treatment and non-discrimination still bind the buyer for any contract a firm in another member state would plausibly want.
Instrument: EU membership, procurement directives 2014/24 and 2014/25.
Where you would register
The national channels in Belgium. Registration rules are set by each one and change without notice, so treat these as the addresses to check, not as a list of what they will ask you for.
Registering and bidding on e-Procurement, step by step
The federal e-Procurement platform (publicprocurement.be) is free and open to any supplier interested in Belgian contracts. These are the steps BOSA's help centre gives, each with the article and the legal text it rests on.
Search the Bulletin of Tenders
Search without logging in, on words in the title, the CPV code or the organisation, and filter to future submission deadlines only. Taking part needs an account.
Source: Searching the Bulletin of Tenders (KB0011242, in Dutch); Welcome to the federal e-Procurement platform
Register a user and create your enterprise
Register with your name, a unique email address and a password of at least 13 characters, activate the account by email, then create your enterprise. Without a Belgian CBE number, choose your country first and enter your company number in free format. Fill in the business card: buyers use it to find and invite suppliers for contracts they do not publish.
Source: Registering as a new user (KB0010404, in Dutch); Creating your enterprise (KB0010554); Welcome to the federal e-Procurement platform
Confirm participation and upload
Open the dossier from the Bulletin, confirm participation to reach the submission space, select the lots and upload the documents.
Source: How do I submit an offer / request for participation? (KB0011407)
Finalise and sign the submission report
Finalising generates a submission report, and the offer and its annexes are signed globally on it with a qualified electronic signature unless the procurement documents say otherwise. A foreign company signs with an equally valid qualified certificate from a provider on the EU trusted list; BOSA advises starting weeks before the deadline.
Source: Signing your offer / request for participation (KB0010578); Royal decree of 18 April 2017 on the award of public contracts in the classic sectors, articles 8, 11, 39, 42, 43 and 90 (text updated to 14 January 2026)
Send before the deadline
Signing is not submitting: the offer still has to be sent. Until the deadline passes it can be updated.
Source: How do I submit an offer / request for participation? (KB0011407)
| Contract | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Works | EUR 5,404,000 |
| Supplies and services, federal authorities | EUR 140,000 |
| Supplies and services, other authorities | EUR 216,000 |
| Social and other specific services | EUR 750,000 |
EU thresholds in Belgium since 1 January 2026 (royal decree of 18 April 2017, article 11)
Sources, read 12 October 2026: Welcome to the federal e-Procurement platform; Searching the Bulletin of Tenders (KB0011242, in Dutch); Registering as a new user (KB0010404, in Dutch); Creating your enterprise (KB0010554); How do I submit an offer / request for participation? (KB0011407); Signing your offer / request for participation (KB0010578); Law of 17 June 2016 on public procurement, articles 14 and 92 (text updated to 16 February 2026); Royal decree of 18 April 2017 on the award of public contracts in the classic sectors, articles 8, 11, 39, 42, 43 and 90 (text updated to 14 January 2026).
A right to bid is not a notice
The instrument above settles whether you may bid. It says nothing about whether you will ever see the tender. 5 sources publish public procurement in Belgium, and 2 of them are read here every day, which leaves 3 mapped and not yet read. A company that registers on the national portal and stops there is watching one address out of 5.
Where the competition is thinnest in Belgium
Across all procurement in Belgium above the EU thresholds, 25.3% of 5,780 lots drew exactly one tender, against 35.9% for the EU as a whole. These are the five CPV divisions where that share is highest, which is where an entrant meets the least installed supply. It is not a ranking of how easy they are.
Tell us the markets, we send the map
Name the countries you are weighing up. You get back where public tenders are published in each one, how much of that we read every day, and what an EU company needs before it may bid there. An email, not a call.
Frequently asked questions
01Can a foreign company bid for public contracts in Belgium?
Yes. A company established anywhere in the EU bids in Belgium on the same terms as a company established there, and a buyer that treats it differently is breaking the rule it is bound by. Above the EU thresholds the procurement directives apply directly. Below them the Treaty principles of equal treatment and non-discrimination still bind the buyer for any contract a firm in another member state would plausibly want.
02Where would a company register to bid in Belgium?
BOSA e-Procurement (https://www.publicprocurement.be/), the federal e-procurement platform, where Belgian public procedures are published; e-Notification (https://enot.publicprocurement.be/enot-war/home.do), the federal publication application and public tender bulletin; Marchés publics de Wallonie (https://marchespublics.wallonie.be/), Wallonia's regional public procurement portal. Those are the national channels. Beyond them, 5 sources in total publish public tenders in Belgium, of which 2 are read by a dedicated connector on this site, so registering on the national portal alone leaves 3 publishing places unwatched.
03Can a foreign company sign a Belgian tender without a Belgian eID?
Yes. The submission report is signed with a qualified electronic signature unless the procurement documents say otherwise (royal decree of 18 April 2017, article 43), and BOSA's help centre says a foreign company needs an equally valid digital certificate, from a provider on the EU trusted list.
04Which Belgian public contracts are not published?
Below EUR 30,000 a contract may be concluded by accepted invoice (law of 17 June 2016, article 92), and below EUR 140,000 the buyer may use the negotiated procedure without prior publication (royal decree of 18 April 2017, article 90). Below the EU thresholds the buyer may not ask for the ESPD (article 39).
05Does being a WTO member let an EU company bid in Belgium?
Not needed: Belgium applies the EU procurement directives, so an EU company bids on the same terms as a local one. The WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, to which the EU is a party for all its member states, matters for suppliers from outside the EEA, and only for what the annexes list.
What this does and does not say
It names the instrument that governs access and where the notices are published. It is not legal advice and it is not the tender documents, which are the only thing that binds a particular procedure: a buyer can require local registration, a local agent, a share of local content or a certificate no agreement overrides. Trade agreements also work through annexes, so the right they grant reaches the buyers and the thresholds those annexes list and stops there. Where this page says no instrument exists, that is not the same as saying a foreign firm cannot bid; it means nothing obliges the country to let it, and the tender documents decide. The source counts come from this site's platform registry, which maps 1,470 sources across 126 countries.