Portals and systems
Tenders Electronic Daily(TED)
Written by Justin Cesman, CEO of Skim. Last reviewed:
- Definition
- Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) is the European Union's official platform for public procurement notices, publishing the Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU. It carries around 800,000 above-threshold notices a year, worth more than €815 billion, across all EU and EEA countries.
Key takeaways
- Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) is the EU's mandatory portal for above-threshold public procurement, publishing the Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU (OJ S).
- TED carries around 800,000 notices a year, worth more than €815 billion, across all 27 EU member states plus EEA countries.
- Since Brexit, UK above-threshold notices are published on Find a Tender, not TED — TED ceased to be the UK's OJEU channel from 1 January 2021.
- UK suppliers can still bid for EU contracts published on TED under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which gives reciprocal access above GPA thresholds.
- Since October 2023 every TED notice uses the eForms standard, producing structured data that makes EU opportunities far easier to filter and monitor at scale.
How it works
TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the EU's equivalent of Find a Tender: the official online platform where EU member state procurements above the EU thresholds must be advertised. It publishes the Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU (OJ S) and covers the full procurement lifecycle — prior information notices, contract notices, contract award notices and corrigenda — for all 27 EU member states plus EEA countries. The Publications Office of the European Union maintains it and access is free.
The scale is large. TED publishes over 3,000 notices on every working day — around 800,000 a year — representing more than €815 billion in procurement spend. Whether a contract must be advertised on TED depends on whether its estimated value reaches the EU thresholds, which are revised every two years to track the WTO Government Procurement Agreement. From 1 January 2026 the central-government thresholds set by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152 are €140,000 for supplies and services and €5,404,000 for works; sub-central authorities use €216,000 for supplies and services and the same €5,404,000 for works. Social and other specific services have a higher €750,000 threshold.
Before Brexit, all UK above-threshold procurements were published on TED via the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). From 1 January 2021 that channel split: UK contracting authorities now publish on Find a Tender, while TED continues to carry EU procurements. The change was not retroactive — any procedure that opened with an OJEU notice before the end of 2020 stays on OJEU for its later notices.
Since October 2023 every notice on TED has been published using eForms, the structured-data standard introduced by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780; the old eNotices and eSenders submission routes closed on 31 January 2024 and buyers now file through eNotices2. For bidders this matters because eForms make TED data machine-readable, so EU opportunities can be filtered by classification, country and value far more precisely than under the old free-text forms — the same CPV codes used on Find a Tender apply on TED.
TED vs Find a Tender
| Feature | TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) | Find a Tender |
|---|---|---|
| Operated by | Publications Office of the European Union | UK government (Cabinet Office) |
| Covers | All 27 EU member states plus EEA | UK above-threshold procurements |
| Replaced for the UK by | Find a Tender, from 1 January 2021 | — |
| Underlying publication | Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU (OJ S) | UK e-notification service |
| Notice standard | eForms (mandatory since October 2023) | UK eForms-based notices |
| Can UK suppliers bid? | Yes, under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement | Yes — the UK's home market |
Why it matters for bidders
For a UK supplier whose services are not geography-dependent, TED opens a market that runs to more than €815 billion a year — far larger than UK public procurement alone. Even bidding only into nearby markets such as Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium meaningfully extends an addressable pipeline. The catch is that TED is a separate portal from Find a Tender, in 24 languages, with its own notice formats — so most UK SMEs never monitor it and miss opportunities they are fully entitled to pursue under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The discipline that separates teams who win across borders is reading EU award notices the same way they read UK ones: which incumbents keep winning, at what values, in which member states. That award-data signal, drawn from bid teams who have won £3bn+ in UK and EU public contracts, turns a daunting 800,000-notice firehose into a short, qualified shortlist.
How Skim helps
Skim's Opportunity Discovery agent monitors TED alongside UK portals, filtering EU notices by your sector CPV codes, language capabilities and geographic reach so you can extend your pipeline into EU markets without manually watching a separate 800,000-notice portal. Its Competitor Analysis agent then reads EU award notices to show which incumbents win which contracts, and at what value, before you commit to a cross-border bid.
Frequently asked questions
- What is TED (Tenders Electronic Daily)?
- TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the European Union's official online platform for public procurement notices. It publishes the Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU, carrying around 800,000 above-threshold notices a year — worth more than €815 billion — across all EU member states and EEA countries. The Publications Office of the EU maintains it and access is free.
- What is the difference between TED and Find a Tender?
- TED is the EU's procurement portal, covering all 27 member states plus EEA countries. Find a Tender is the UK's equivalent, used since 1 January 2021. Before Brexit, UK above-threshold notices appeared on TED via OJEU; now they appear on Find a Tender, while TED continues to publish EU procurements only.
- Can UK companies bid for contracts on TED after Brexit?
- Yes. UK suppliers can bid for EU contracts published on TED under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which builds on the WTO Government Procurement Agreement to give UK and EU bidders reciprocal access above the relevant thresholds. Most contracts outside defence and military procurement are open to UK suppliers.
- What are the EU procurement thresholds for TED?
- From 1 January 2026, under Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152, central-government contracts must be advertised on TED above €140,000 for supplies and services and €5,404,000 for works. Sub-central authorities use €216,000 for supplies and services. Social and other specific services have a €750,000 threshold.
- What are eForms on TED?
- eForms are the EU's structured-data standard for procurement notices, introduced by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780 and mandatory on TED since October 2023. They replaced free-text forms with machine-readable data, so bidders can filter TED notices by classification, country and value far more precisely. Notices are now submitted through eNotices2.
Sources
Related terms
Find a Tender(FTS)
Find a Tender (FTS) is the UK government's central digital platform for publishing public procurement notices above the threshold, replacing the EU's Official Journal (OJEU/TED) after Brexit. Under the Procurement Act 2023, FTS carries all regulated above-threshold notices for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Contracts Finder
Contracts Finder is the UK government's free, Cabinet Office-run portal where public buyers publish lower-value contract opportunities and award notices. It covers contracts above £12,000 including VAT for central government and £30,000 including VAT for sub-central bodies such as councils, NHS trusts, and universities.
CPV codes(CPV)
CPV codes — the Common Procurement Vocabulary — are a standardised set of nine-digit numbers that public sector buyers use to classify the subject of a contract notice. Maintained by the European Union and retained by the UK after Brexit, CPV codes let suppliers search and filter procurement portals consistently.