Procedures & timing ¡ This guide was generated with the help of an AI system. Its legal references were checked against the official EU texts listed under Sources on . Next review due by , or sooner if the law changes. EU rules only. Not legal advice.
Short answer. Since 25 October 2023, notices above the EU thresholds are published in the eForms format set by Implementing Regulation 2019/1780. A contract notice is laid out in numbered sections: 1 the buyer, 2 the procedure, 5 the lots, 8 the organisations involved, and a closing block of notice information. What it must contain is set by Annex V part C to the Directive. The fields that decide whether you can bid are mostly in section 5: the place, the duration, the deadline, the documents address and, often, the award criteria. But many notices leave the real detail to the procurement documents. In three of the five recent cleaning notices we opened, there was no estimated value and no award criteria at all. Read the notice to decide whether to open the documents, not instead of them.
EU law ¡ What the notice must tell you
A contract notice must contain the information in Annex V part C and be published in the standard forms (Articles 49 and 51(1)). Those standard forms are now eForms: Implementing Regulation 2019/1780 sets six forms (planning, competition, direct award prenotification, result, contract modification and change), and since 25 October 2023 only these can be used.
Annex V part C lists 30 items. The ones a bidder uses first:
| Annex V part C | What it must say |
|---|---|
| Point 2 | The address where the procurement documents are available for unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge |
| Points 5 and 6 | CPV codes and the NUTS code of the main place of performance, for each lot |
| Points 7 and 8 | A description of what is bought, any options, and the estimated total order of magnitude, for each lot |
| Point 10 | The time-frame and, as far as possible, the duration. For a framework agreement, its duration and, as far as possible, the value and frequency of the contracts |
| Point 11 | Conditions for participation: exclusion and selection criteria, minimum levels, and the evidence required |
| Points 12 and 14 | The type of procedure, and whether you can bid for one, several or all lots, and any limit on the lots one tenderer can win |
| Point 17 | Where appropriate, the particular conditions for performing the contract |
| Point 18 | The award criteria and their weighting, unless they are in the specifications (or in the descriptive document of a competitive dialogue) |
| Points 19 to 22 | The time limit for tenders or requests to participate, the address to send them to, for open procedures how long tenders must stay valid, and the languages allowed |
| Point 25 | The review body and precise information on review deadlines, or a service that can provide it |
Two things follow. First, award criteria may lawfully be missing from the notice, if they are in the specifications (point 18). That is the only item on this list the Annex itself allows to be left to the documents. Second, the Annex asks for an âestimated total order of magnitudeâ (point 8), but the eForms field for the estimated value (BT-27) is optional in every form that has it. So a notice can be published without a value. The Directiveâs requirement doesnât go away; the form just doesnât enforce it.
The documents link has a definition. The eForms field for it (BT-15) must give access that is âdirect (i.e. the exact webpage with the documents, not a general website), unrestricted (e.g. no registration), full (i.e. the procurement documents are complete) and free of chargeâ, with the documents available at the time the notice is published. That matches Article 53(1). Where access canât be given that way, for technical or confidentiality reasons, the notice must say how to get the documents, and the time limit for tenders is extended by five days, except in duly substantiated urgency.
Which language counts. The notice is published in full in the language or languages the buyer chooses, and only those versions are authentic. A summary is published in the other EU languages (Article 51(3)). Machine translations on TED are a help, not the text.
Practice ¡ How an eForms notice is laid out
| Section | What's in it | Look for |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Publication number (for example 599771-2026), OJ S issue, notice type | Is it a call for competition, or a result? |
| 1. Buyer | Name, legal type, main activity | Central government or not: this changes the threshold for supplies and services |
| 2. Procedure | Title, description, type of procedure, main CPV, legal basis, previous notice | The procedure type and any earlier prior information notice |
| 5. Lot | One block per lot (LOT-0001, LOT-0002âŚ): purpose, place, duration, value, criteria, documents, deadlines, techniques, review | Almost everything that decides whether you bid |
| 6. Results | In award notices: winners, value, number of tenders, lowest and highest admissible tender | Market research before the next round |
| 8. Organisations | Buyer, review body, any other organisations, with roles and contacts | The review body and the contact for questions |
| 10. Change | In change notices: what was changed | A new deadline, a corrected criterion |
| Notice information | Form type, notice subtype, dispatch date, languages, publication date | The official language(s), and the dispatch date that starts the time limits |
We checked this layout against contract and award notices published on TED in September 2026.
Practice ¡ A worked example
A made-up extract from section 5, with the field names TED uses:
| Section | Fields |
|---|---|
| 5.1 | Lot: LOT-0002 Title: Cleaning of administrative buildings, district north |
| 5.1.1 | Main classification (cpv): 90911200 Building-cleaning services |
| 5.1.2 | Country subdivision (NUTS): Brussels (BE100) |
| 5.1.3 | Estimated duration Start date: 01/03/2027 Duration: 12 Months |
| 5.1.4 | Renewal Maximum renewals: 3 Other information about renewals: renewable three times, 12 months each time |
| 5.1.6 | The procurement is covered by the GPA: yes |
| 5.1.9 | Sources of selection criteria: Procurement document |
| 5.1.10 | Award criteria Type: Price. Award criterion number: 40 Type: Quality. Name: Work plan and staffing. Award criterion number: 35 Type: Quality. Name: Quality control. Award criterion number: 25 |
| 5.1.11 | Address of the procurement documents: portal.example/ |
| 5.1.12 | Deadline for receipt of tenders: 15/01/2027 11:00:00 (UTC+01:00) Duration during which the tender must remain valid: 6 Months Languages: French, Dutch Electronic submission: Required |
| 5.1.15 | Framework agreement: No framework agreement |
| 5.1.16 | Review organisation: Example Review Board Information about review deadlines: see the procurement documents |
How to read it:
| Field | What it tells you | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Lot | You may be able to bid for one lot only | Check section 5 of every lot, and any limit on lots per tenderer (see lots) |
| Duration and renewal | 12 months plus up to three renewals of 12 months: up to four years. The eForms definition says the duration should include renewals (BT-36), but some buyers enter only the first term, as here | Work out the full term from the renewal information and the documents, and price for all of it (see price review clauses) |
| Selection criteria | Not in the notice, only in the documents | Open the documents before anything else: a turnover or reference requirement can end it here (see selection criteria) |
| Award criteria | Price 40, quality 35 and 25. In eForms the weight is shown in a field labelled "Award criterion number" | Read the formula and the marking scheme in the documents (see how tenders are scored) |
| Documents address | Must lead directly to the complete documents, free and without registration | If it doesn't, ask the buyer in writing (see clarification questions) |
| Deadline | A date, a time and a time zone | Diary it in your own time zone, with a margin for upload problems |
| Languages | French or Dutch only | Budget for translation, and for writing quality sections in that language |
| Review deadlines | Left to the documents | Note where they are now, not after the award (see after the award decision) |
Our analysis ¡ What notices often leave out
We opened five contract notices for cleaning services published on TED at the start of September 2026. Three gave no estimated value and no award criteria. Four gave the selection criteria only as a reference to the documents, and two did the same for the review deadlines. Five notices are a snapshot, not a statistic, but the pattern is common enough to plan for.
Whether thatâs in order depends on the item. Award criteria may be in the specifications instead of the notice (point 18). For the order of magnitude (point 8), a brief description of the selection criteria (point 11) and the review deadlines (point 25), Annex V asks for the information in the notice itself. We havenât examined how review bodies treat notices that leave these to the documents, so we draw no conclusion on that. For a bidder, the practical point is the same either way: the notice alone canât tell you whether a tender is worth your time. If something the Annex requires is missing and you need it to decide, ask the buyer in writing.
The same goes for duration. In a further set of cleaning notices from late September 2026, one gave a duration of 12 months with up to three renewals, and explained in the free text that the contract runs for one year and may be renewed three times. The full term was four years, not the 12 months in the duration field.
So treat the notice as a filter. If the place, lot, duration and deadline fit, open the documents. If you canât see the value, two places can help: the related notices (an earlier award notice for the same service often shows the last contractâs value, the number of tenders and the range of admissible prices), and the contractâs duration and quantities in the documents. For whether the EU rules apply at all, see the contract value checker.
Practice ¡ Mandatory, or just good practice?
| The notice must give (Annex V part C) | Check anyway, even if it's not there |
|---|---|
| Documents address, CPV and place per lot, description, procedure type, conditions for participation, time limits, languages, review body | Whether there's an earlier prior information notice or a market consultation |
| Award criteria and weighting, unless they're in the specifications | The price formula, which notices rarely state (see scoring) |
| Performance conditions, where appropriate | Their cost (see performance conditions) |
| Estimated order of magnitude, per lot | The last award notice for the same service, and its number of tenders |
| Review body and review deadlines, or who can tell you | The deadline for questions, which may sit only in the documents |
Practice ¡ Mistakes that cost bids
- Reading an old version. Corrections come as change notices with new publication numbers. Look for the latest one and read its section 10.
- Trusting the machine translation. Only the language versions the buyer chose are authentic. Check anything decisive in the original.
- Getting the time zone wrong. Deadlines are given with their UTC offset.
- Missing the lot rules. A limit on the number of lots one tenderer can be awarded changes which lots to prioritise.
- Reading the code as the scope. The CPV code is a label. The description and the documents define the work (see CPV codes).
- Not registering on the documents platform. Answers to questions and corrections to the documents are often published there, not on TED.
Practice ¡ Five-minute triage
- Notice type and latest version: is it a call for competition, and is this the newest notice?
- Lots: which lot fits you, and can you bid for it alone?
- Place, start date and duration including renewals.
- Deadline for tenders and, if stated, for questions. Enough time?
- Documents: open the link. Can you read the selection criteria and the price formula today?
If all five pass, read the documents. How to find notices in the first place: finding EU tenders on TED.
What this page doesnât cover
National notice formats and national portals. Notices under the utilities, concessions and defence Directives, which use the same forms with different fields. Notices of the EU institutionsâ own tenders.
Sources checked for this page
- Directive 2014/24/EU, consolidated text of 1 January 2026 (Articles 49, 51, 53 and Annex V part C)
- Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780 (eForms), consolidated text of 1 November 2024 (Articles 1 to 3b and Annex)
- TED help, Notice view (layout, change notices, related notices, languages)
- TED help, Search and browse
This page is re-checked when any of the following happens: an amendment to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780 (eForms); an amendment to Article 51, Article 53 or Annex V of Directive 2014/24/EU. Spotted an error? See how corrections work.