Understanding TED Europa: A Guide for Medical Suppliers

TED Europa (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the European Union's official portal for public procurement notices, publishing over 500,000 tenders a year from all 27 member states. For medical suppliers, it is the single most important source of hospital equipment, pharmaceutical, and healthcare service contracts across Europe. This guide explains how it works, what CPV codes mean, and how to find the tenders relevant to you.

What is TED Europa?

TED is the online version of the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union. EU law requires public bodies to advertise contracts above certain value thresholds on TED, which makes it a comprehensive, authoritative record of European public procurement. Hospitals, health ministries, and regional health authorities across the EU all publish here.

Because it covers 27 countries in 24 languages, TED is both incredibly valuable and genuinely difficult to monitor by hand, a tender in Germany is published in German, one in Italy in Italian, and so on.

How CPV codes work

Every TED notice is classified using a CPV code (Common Procurement Vocabulary), an 8-digit code that describes what's being purchased. Filtering by CPV is the single best way to cut through the volume. Key healthcare CPV codes include:

CPV Code	Category
33100000	Medical equipment
33600000	Pharmaceutical products
33140000	Medical consumables
33180000	Functional support (e.g. surgical devices)
85100000	Health services

For a deeper comparison of how this differs from the US system, see our guide on CPV codes vs NAICS codes.

Value thresholds

Not every public contract appears on TED, only those above the EU procurement thresholds, which are reviewed every two years. Above the threshold, advertising on TED is mandatory; below it, contracts are handled through national portals. This means TED captures the larger, more valuable opportunities, while smaller tenders may only appear on a member state's own system.

Framework agreements and DPS

Much of EU healthcare procurement runs through framework agreements, multi-year arrangements with pre-approved suppliers, and Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS), which stay open for new suppliers to join throughout their lifetime. Understanding which mechanism a buyer uses is essential, because it shapes how and when you can bid.

How to find medical tenders on TED

• Filter by CPV code for your product categories to reduce noise
• Set country filters for the markets you can actually serve
• Watch framework renewal dates, missing a window can mean waiting years
• Account for language, relevant tenders may be in any of 24 languages

The practical challenge

TED is free and comprehensive, but monitoring it consistently across 27 countries and 24 languages is a real burden, and if you also sell to the US, UK, or globally, you're juggling SAM.gov, NHS portals, and WHO procurement on top of it.

How HealthProcure Intel helps

HealthProcure Intel scrapes TED Europa daily, normalises every notice, and combines it with SAM.gov, WHO, and NHS data in one API and dashboard. You can filter by CPV category, country, and value across all sources at once, get alerts for new matching tenders, and see contract award data to understand who is winning. Start free, no credit card required.

Frequently asked questions

Is TED Europa free?

Yes, searching TED is completely free. The cost is the time and language effort required to monitor it thoroughly.

Can non-EU companies bid on TED tenders?

Often yes, depending on the contract and any trade agreements in place, though you'll need to meet the specific requirements of each tender.

How often is TED updated?

TED is updated continuously, with new notices published every business day across all member states.