Frequently asked questions:
- Can my company / organisation participate to tenders from the European Commission?
- Where can my company / organisation find information about public procurement in the EU?
- Can my company / organisation receive grants from the European Commission for a project that we want to realize?

Action:
the EIC answers to all questions about tenders and funding possibilities from the European institutions as well as tenders launched by national, regional or local authorities in the EU and other countries.

Information sources:
- EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE OF THE EU TO THIRD COUNTRIES
- EuropeAid Co-operation Office of the European Commission
http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/index.htm
- PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN THE EU
- TED (Tenders Electronic Daily)
http://ted.publications.eu.int

How to find info?

- EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE OF THE EU TO THIRD COUNTRIES
EuropeAid Co-operation Office of the European Commission
The EuropeAid Co-operation Office coordinates all external assistance projects that are funded by the European Commission. Such projects require deliveries of goods or services, the execution of works or grants for technical assistance projects.
Example: Can my company participate to a tender from the European Commission for delivering vehicles (e.g. buses) to organisations, public transport companies, etc. in Kosovo?
Steps to be followed:
Consult the EuropeAid website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/index.htm
Step 1: login to the website of the European Commission’s Directorate General External Relations – EuropeAid Co-operation Office (see above)
Step 2: select “Tenders and Grants”
Step 3: select “Tender opportunities and calls for proposals”
Step 4: select “PHARE/ISPA/SAPARD” if you are interested in tenders / projects in the candidate countries and select for status “forecast”, “open”, “closed” or a combination of these possibilities to search for tenders that are expected to be published soon, tenders for which companies and organisatios can present a bid or tenders for which the deadline to present a bid is passed.
If you search for tenders and projects for which the closing deadline has passed, this will allow you to see which company or organisation won the tendering procedure. In case of large projects, companies could contact the “winner” of the tender in order to see if there is a possibility to act as a subcontractor.
Step 5: select “SUPPLIES” if your company / organisation is interested in delivering goods
and / or select “WORKS” if your company / organisation is interested in executing works
and/or select “SERVICES” if your company / organisation is interested in delivering services
and/or select “GRANTS” if your company / organisation wants to be informed about calls for proposals for technical assistance projects
Verify in the list of tenders that will appear on the screen if some relevant tenders can be found.

- PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN THE EU
TED (Tenders Electronic Daily)
This site is updated daily. All tenders of public institutions in the EU with an estimated value which is higher than certain tresholds have to be communicated to the European institutions. These tenders are published in the Supplement of the Official Journal of the EU and appear also in the TED website.
Let us take a look at this website. Please go to: http://ted.publications.eu.int
Select “Search for tenders”.
A form appears in which you may create your personal search profile. This means that you can select first the so-called CPV-codes which are relevant for your activity sector. Every tender in TED is codified with one or more CPV-codes. If a tender concerns the delivery of many different items, it is clear that several CPV-codes will be attached to this tender.
You may find appropriate CPV-codes by following the hierarchical tree structure of the list of codes or by introducing a word (a description) in the box next to “search”. You may refine your search profile with selecting the country(ies) in which you want to find opportunities for supplying to public institutions. Under “Contract” you may indicate whether you are only interested in supply of goods or services, execution of works, etc. With the criteria “Type author.” and “Heading” you may make clear that you are looking for tenders of European institutions or tenders in third countries (e.g. in Central and Eastern Europe) which are financed by the EU, tenders of national or local authorities, etc.
Furthermore, you may select tenders according to different types of dates, the type of procedure which is followed for a tender, the name of the awarding authority, etc.
You may also search for tenders which are already closed in order to get to know the name of the company who won the tender. For big tenders, it is possible that the winner is prepared and legally authorised to work together with subcontractors for executing the tender.
Finally, we mention hereafter two useful publication about tenders in the EU which were worked out by the network of Euro Info Centres in order to assist companies in developing opportunities in the field of public procurement.

1) “Sub-threshold tender opportunities in the European Economic Area”
This publication contains in its introduction a scheme with thresholds, amounts of estimated values of tenders above which these tenders need to be notified to the European institutions, which includes the publication of these tenders in TED.
The main contents consists of a description for each country of the European Economic Area (EEA) of all legal obligations regarding the publication of tenders with an estimated value which is lower than the tresholds. This information contains also a list with information sources (websites) in each country where companies can search for appropriate tenders. For Belgium, a description is given of the “Bulletin der Aanbestedingen”.
Some private companies developed specialised services. In many cases, it means that subscribers to their services receive daily those tenders which correspond with their activity. This helps companies to save a lot of time that they do not have to dedicate to search for themselves in TED or other websites. The publication contains the coordinates of such specialised consulting companies.

2) “Mini-guide Reading public procurement tender notices”
This practical guide explains in clear words the structure and different terms which are used when tenders are announced in TED.
Both publications can be ordered at the EIC. Contact: Luc Van Looveren (lvl@kknaw.be)