Bidding in Spain: the country kit

What a company from another country usually runs into. Each line names where you can check it.

Portals

Most buyers publish and take bids on the State platform, PLACSP. Some autonomous communities, Catalonia and the Basque Country among them, run their own, and the notice says which one applies. On PLACSP the bid is prepared with the platform's own tool.

Check it at Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público (PLACSP)

Getting the documents

The procurement documents can usually be downloaded without an account. Sign in anyway: only a registered reader is told when the buyer changes them or answers a question.

Check it at Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público (PLACSP)

Account to submit

To submit you need an account on the platform the notice names. Open it days ahead: some platforms check a new company by hand.

Check it at Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público (PLACSP)

Electronic signature

A qualified electronic signature is usually required on the bid, or on the files the documents name.

A qualified signature from a provider established in another EU state has the same legal effect (eIDAS Regulation, Article 25). Whether the platform's own tool reads your certificate is a practical matter: try it well before the deadline.

Check it at Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público (PLACSP), EU trusted lists of signature providers

ESPD and eCertis

The European Single Procurement Document is accepted as a first proof that you are suitable; here it is called DEUC (documento europeo único de contratación). eCertis shows which certificates of your own country match the ones asked for.

Check it at eCertis (European Commission)

Registers and lists

Registration in ROLECE, the State's register of bidders, is usually asked for in the simplified open procedure (procedimiento abierto simplificado); a company from another EU state can usually rely on its own country's official list or on the ESPD instead. The classification asked of Spanish contractors for larger works is not asked of companies from other EU states, which prove their standing by other means.

Check it at Registro Oficial de Licitadores y Empresas Clasificadas del Sector Público (ROLECE)

Language of the bid

Bids are usually written in Spanish. Certificates in another language usually need a translation; the documents say whether it has to be certified.

Check it at Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público (PLACSP)