TED and European publication: how does it work?

When a public contract in Belgium exceeds the European thresholds, it must not only be published nationally via e-Notification, but also at European level via TED — Tenders Electronic Daily. TED is the official publication database of the European Union for public procurement and provides access to hundreds of thousands of tenders from all EU and EEA member states.

For contractors looking to compete across borders — or simply wanting to fully monitor their Belgian market — TED is an essential source. In this article we explain how TED works, when European publication is mandatory, and what the transition to eForms means.

What is TED?

TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the online version of the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union, specifically dedicated to public procurement. It is managed by the Publications Office of the European Union in Luxembourg.

TED publishes new notices daily in all official EU languages. The database contains several types of notices:

• Contract notices — calls for competition for new contracts.
• Prior information notices — early signals of planned contracts, often months before the actual notice.
• Contract award notices — results of completed procurements, showing the winner and the award amount.
• Corrigenda — amendments to previously published notices.
• Design contest notices — for specific procedures in special sectors.

Each year, TED publishes more than 700,000 notices, with a total contract value exceeding €700 billion.

When is European publication mandatory?

A public contract must be published at European level when its estimated value (excl. VAT) reaches or exceeds the European thresholds. For the 2026–2027 period, those thresholds are:

With European publication, longer minimum submission periods also apply. For an open procedure, the standard period is 35 days (instead of 22 for a purely Belgian publication). In case of urgency, this period can be shortened to 15 days, but the authority must justify the urgency.

Important: a contract that must be published at European level may not be published nationally before the date of dispatch to TED. European publication takes precedence.

eForms: the new European standard

Since 2024, eForms have been the mandatory standard for all procurement notices published via TED. eForms replace the previous standard forms and bring several important changes:

More structured data. eForms use a more detailed data model, making notices more machine-readable. This enables monitoring tools like TenderWolf to filter and match more accurately.

New fields. eForms contain fields for sustainability (green criteria, environmental impact), innovation, SME access, and strategic procurement principles. This reflects the EU’s increasing focus on socially responsible procurement.

Flexible structure. Not all fields are mandatory for every notice. The required fields vary by procedure type, sector (classic or special), and threshold. This makes the forms more flexible but also more complex.

Multilingual support. eForms support publication in multiple languages, with the authority required to publish in at least one official EU language.

Searching on TED

TED offers a search interface at ted.europa.eu where you can filter by:

• CPV codes — the primary search key for finding relevant contracts.
• NUTS codes — the place of performance, at regional or country level.
• Notice type — contract, prior information, award, corrigendum.
• Procedure type — open, restricted, negotiated, etc.
• Publication date — search within a specific period.
• Keywords — free text search within notices.

TED’s search functionality is powerful but not always intuitive. Results appear in the language of the original publication, meaning that as a Belgian company wanting to tender in other countries, you may sometimes need to search in French, German or English.

Limitations of TED

While TED is the most complete source for European tenders, the platform has some limitations:

Only contracts above the European thresholds. The many contracts below the thresholds — published only nationally — cannot be found on TED. In Belgium, these are published via e-Notification.

No specification documents. TED publishes the notice, but not the full specifications. For the actual specification documents, you need to go to e-Notification or the platform the authority mentions in the notice.

Translation delays. Although notices are published in multiple languages, translations sometimes appear days after the original publication. If you wait for the English version, you lose valuable submission time.

No monitoring function. TED does not offer a proactive notification service comparable to e-Notification’s search profiles. You must search regularly yourself — or use a tool like TenderWolf that continuously monitors TED on your behalf.

TED vs. monitoring tools: when does free still suffice?

TED is free, official, and complete for European-threshold tenders. It is enough for organisations that monitor a narrow slice of the market with disciplined CPV configuration. It stops being enough when one of these is true:

• You also need contracts below the European thresholds — those are published only nationally (e-Procurement BE, TenderNed NL, BOAMP FR), never on TED.
• You need the actual specification documents, not just the publication notice.
• You want a single inbox of alerts across countries, in your own language.
• You need to know who else bids, who has won similar contracts, and at what price.

The trade-offs in plain comparison:

If your market is purely European-threshold and you have a procurement specialist who can configure CPV codes, NUTS regions and keywords, TED is a real option. Most contractors find that the time saved on document analysis and the visibility of sub-threshold contracts pay back the cost of a tool within weeks. For a deeper side-by-side, see the comparison of tender software in Belgium and Europe.

Sources

• TED — Tenders Electronic Daily
• eForms — European Commission
• European publication — BOSA
• SIMAP — Information on public procurement in the EU