Guides
Plain-language guides to European public procurement - how it works, and how to win.
Contents
Qualify
Which procedure you are in, what the buyer may ask of you and how to prove it.
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1. Guide 05: Open, restricted, negotiated: EU procurement procedures explained
What the procedure type on a tender notice actually means for you - who can bid, in how many stages, whether you can negotiate, and how to adapt your strategy to each one.
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2. Guide 09: Selection vs. award criteria: how public buyers score your bid
Two different tests decide every tender - whether you may win, and whether you do. How exclusion, selection and award criteria work, what MEAT scoring means, and how to bid to the formula.
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3. Guide 07: The ESPD explained: one form instead of a folder of certificates
The European Single Procurement Document lets you bid with a self-declaration instead of certificates. What it contains, how to fill it in without mistakes, and when the real evidence is due.
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4. Guide 30: Exclusion grounds and self-cleaning: the tests every bidder must pass, and how to recover from failing one
Before a bid is read, the bidder is checked for convictions, unpaid taxes, insolvency, misconduct and past failures. Which grounds are mandatory, which are the buyer's choice, how long they last, and how self-cleaning lets a company bid again.
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5. Guide 29: Consortia, subcontractors and borrowed capacity: bidding for what you cannot deliver alone
The directives let you meet selection criteria with another company's turnover or references, bid as a group, or subcontract part of the work. What each route requires, what the buyer may demand, and how to structure a team that survives evaluation.
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6. Guide 28: Lots in public tenders: how to bid for a slice instead of the whole
Buyers split large contracts into lots so smaller companies can compete. How lots work, the limits on how many you may bid for and win, how combined bids are scored, and why a single-lot strategy wins more often than it looks.