Bidding in Italy: the country kit

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

Portals

Notices are published through ANAC's national database. The bid goes to the certified platform each buyer uses: Consip's Acquistinretepa (with the MePA marketplace), a regional one such as Sintel in Lombardy, START in Tuscany or SATER in Emilia-Romagna, or the buyer's own. Each wants its own registration.

Check it at ANAC, Piattaforma di pubblicità a valore legale, Acquistinretepa (Consip)

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 ANAC, Piattaforma di pubblicità a valore legale

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 ANAC, Piattaforma di pubblicità a valore legale, 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 DGUE (documento di gara unico europeo). eCertis shows which certificates of your own country match the ones asked for.

Check it at eCertis (European Commission)

Registers and lists

For public works above a value the law sets, Italian contractors hold an SOA attestation. A company established in another EU state does not need one: it proves the same requirements with the documents of its own country. Buyers check what a bidder declares through ANAC's FVOE file (fascicolo virtuale dell'operatore economico), so the documents usually ask the bidder to register with ANAC's services.

Check it at Autorità Nazionale Anticorruzione (ANAC)

Language of the bid

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

Check it at ANAC, Piattaforma di pubblicità a valore legale