European Union (EU) Directives

Advertising requirements

If a contract to be tendered exceeds a fixed amount laid down by the EU (currently approximately £140,000 for goods and services or £3.5 million for works), it must be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)

There are two parts to the advertisement:

Contract notice – a contract notice is effectively the European equivalent of the advertisement that would be placed in the UK press seeking tenders or applicants to a select list of tenderers. It is based on a strict format laid down in the Procurement Directives.

Award notice – within 48 days of an award of a contract (which was subject to a contract notice published in OJEU), an awards notice must be placed in OJEU declaring the name of the successful tenderer.

Full details of our current EU notices and awards are published on the Council's Procurement Portal.

Publication of a Prior Indicative Notice [PIN]

In addition to contract notices and awards, each year we place a public notice containing details of contracts that we may be tendering at EU level during that financial year.

The information is provided as an advance guide to our potential procurement activity. Not all contracts listed will become the subject of an individual formal public notice.

Standards

Companies offering tenders to us will find that conditions of contract and specifications will incorporate European standards and regulations. British standards and regulations will only apply where no other international standards and regulations exist.

Further information

For further information please contact the procurement team.