Procurement glossary

The key terms of public procurement across Europe — explained briefly and with practical context.

• Public tender The competitive procedure public authorities use to award construction, supply and service contracts transparently.
• Contract notice The official publication with which a contracting authority announces a tender or its outcome.
• TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) The Official Journal of the EU for tenders above the European thresholds.
• CPV code Common Procurement Vocabulary — the EU-wide taxonomy classifying tenders by type of work or supply.
• EU thresholds The value limits above which public contracts must be advertised EU-wide.
• Selection stage The preliminary screening in two-stage procedures before actual bids are invited.
• Eligibility criteria The requirements the company itself must meet — financial capacity, references, licences — before its bid counts.
• Award criteria The evaluation measures by which the authority picks the most economically advantageous tender — often price plus quality.
• Submission deadline The binding deadline by which bids must have reached the contracting authority.
• e-Procurement The fully electronic handling of public procurement — from notice to electronic bid submission.
• Framework agreement A multi-year contract with one or more suppliers from which services are called off as needed.
• Bid consortium A group of companies submitting a joint bid and delivering the contract together.