Summary
TED Europa — Tenders Electronic Daily — is the online supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union, publishing over 700,000 procurement notices per year from public authorities across all 27 EU member states. It is the mandatory publication channel for contracts above EU thresholds and the single most important resource for any business seeking European government contracts. Understanding how TED works is the first step toward accessing a procurement market worth over €2 trillion annually.
What Is TED Europa?
TED stands for Tenders Electronic Daily, and it serves as the European Union's official electronic journal for public procurement. Published by the Publications Office of the European Union, TED is part of the EUR-Lex family of legal publications and carries full legal force across all EU member states.
Every working day, TED publishes between 2,000 and 3,500 procurement notices from contracting authorities including national ministries, regional governments, local councils, public utilities, hospitals, universities, and EU institutions. These range from contract notices (invitations to tender) to contract award notices, prior information notices, and corrigenda.
The database currently holds records dating back to 1993, making it an invaluable historical archive as well as a live procurement feed. As of early 2026, TED contains over 10 million notices in 24 official EU languages.
Why TED Is the Starting Point for EU Procurement
Under EU procurement directives — primarily Directive 2014/24/EU (public sector), Directive 2014/25/EU (utilities), and Directive 2009/81/EC (defence) — all contracts above certain financial thresholds must be published in TED before national portals. This legal requirement ensures cross-border visibility and fair competition across the single market.
The current thresholds (valid through end-2025, with new thresholds taking effect in 2026) require publication for:
- Works contracts: €5,538,000 and above
- Services and supplies (central government): €143,000 and above
- Services and supplies (sub-central): €221,000 and above
- Utilities contracts: €443,000 (supplies/services) and €5,538,000 (works)
Contracts below these thresholds may also appear on TED voluntarily, but are not legally required to. See our detailed guide on EU procurement thresholds for 2026 for the latest figures.
How TED Is Structured
TED organises procurement notices using the Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) — a standardised classification system covering over 9,000 product and service categories. Each notice is tagged with one or more CPV codes, enabling suppliers to filter relevant opportunities by sector rather than trawling through thousands of unrelated notices each day.
Notices are also tagged by:
- Country and NUTS region — the geographical area of the contracting authority
- Notice type — Contract Notice (CN), Contract Award Notice (CAN), Prior Information Notice (PIN), etc.
- Procedure type — Open, Restricted, Competitive with Negotiation, etc.
- Value and currency — estimated contract value in Euros or local currency
The structured XML data behind every TED notice is available for download through the TED API and bulk data exports, enabling platforms like TenderMetric to provide real-time intelligence feeds.
Navigating TED: eNotices and eForms
In 2023 and 2024, the EU undertook a major upgrade of TED's submission infrastructure. The old TED eNotices platform was replaced by eForms — a new standardised electronic forms system mandated under Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780. Contracting authorities across all 27 member states are now required to use eForms for submitting notices to TED.
eForms introduced over 40 new structured data fields compared to the previous system, including richer data on sustainability criteria, innovation procurement, and subcontracting opportunities. This means that notices published from late 2023 onwards contain significantly more machine-readable data than older records.
For suppliers, eForms means more detailed notices with clearer eligibility criteria, better deadline information, and more transparent award criteria. The new structure also makes it easier for tools like TenderMetric to extract and filter opportunities automatically.
Who Publishes on TED?
TED is not limited to EU member state governments. The following categories of contracting authority are required to publish above-threshold notices on TED:
- National ministries and central government departments
- Regional and local authorities (municipalities, provinces, prefectures)
- Public bodies (hospitals, universities, research institutes)
- Utilities operating in energy, water, transport, and postal sectors
- EU institutions and agencies (European Commission, European Parliament, EIB, etc.)
- EEA countries: Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein (under the EEA Agreement)
- Some non-EU countries that participate in the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
This means TED is genuinely a pan-European marketplace, not just an EU-27 portal. UK-based suppliers, for example, can still access and bid on TED contracts under the post-Brexit GPA framework.
TED vs. National Portals
Many European countries operate their own national procurement portals alongside TED — for example, France's BOAMP and PLACE, Germany's DTVP and DTAD, Italy's ANAC portal, and Greece's ESIDIS system. However, for above-threshold contracts, TED remains the primary legal record and is always published first or simultaneously with national platforms.
For suppliers targeting multiple EU countries, monitoring TED directly (or through an aggregator like TenderMetric) is far more efficient than tracking dozens of national and regional portals independently. TED provides a single, standardised, multilingual view of the entire European procurement market.
How to Search TED Europa
The TED search interface at ted.europa.eu/en/search/latest-opportunities/search supports structured search across all notice fields. A typical TED search workflow looks like this:
| Step | Action | Tips |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Enter CPV code | Type your 8-digit CPV code or division prefix (e.g., 72000000 for IT) | Use a parent-level code to cast a wider net |
| 2. Filter by country | Select one or more EU member states from the Country dropdown | Leave blank to search across all 27+ countries |
| 3. Set notice type | Filter to "Contract Notice" to see open competitions only | Contract Award Notices (CANs) show historic awards — useful for market intel |
| 4. Add keywords | Enter 2–3 keywords in the free-text field alongside CPV filters | Keywords search notice title and description across all 24 languages |
| 5. Sort by deadline | Sort results by submission deadline to prioritise urgent opportunities | Minimum bid preparation time is typically 35 days for open procedures |
| 6. Save as alert | Click "Save search as alert" to receive daily emails matching your filters | Free — no registration required for basic alerts |
For suppliers who need faster notice delivery or multi-source monitoring, TenderMetric aggregates TED with additional European procurement sources and sends alerts within hours of publication.
How to Set Free TED Europa Email Alerts
TED offers free automated email alerts — no registration or login required. To set up a TED alert:
- Go to ted.europa.eu/en/search/latest-opportunities/search and configure your search using CPV codes, country filters, and keywords.
- Click the "Save search" button (envelope icon) in the top-right of the results page.
- Enter your email address. TED will send a daily digest of all new notices matching your saved filters.
- Create multiple saved searches — one per CPV code cluster or country combination — to keep your alert volume manageable.
- Manage and delete alerts at any time via the link in each alert email. No account is required.
Limitation: TED alerts send once per day, in batch, and do not support value-range filters or scoring/ranking. For real-time alerts with estimated contract values, buyer history, and competitor award data, a specialised platform is more efficient for active procurement teams.
Key Takeaways
- TED is the mandatory publication platform for all EU public contracts above threshold — it is the authoritative source, not a secondary aggregator.
- 700,000+ notices per year means you must filter by CPV code and country — unfiltered TED is too noisy for practical use.
- Free TED email alerts require no account — set them up using CPV codes and country filters in under 5 minutes.
- eForms (mandatory from late 2023) add richer structured data to each notice — deadline info, sustainability criteria, and subcontracting opportunities are now more machine-readable.
- For multi-country monitoring or real-time delivery, aggregators like TenderMetric pull from TED plus national portals and deliver filtered results faster than daily TED digests.