eSender Portal

The eSender Portal is the Publications Office of the European Union's own web application for submitting procurement notices directly to TED (Tenders Electronic Daily). It is intended for contracting authorities that do not use a national eProcurement platform or a commercial eSender service and prefer to manage their TED publications themselves through a browser-based interface.

What is the eSender Portal?

The eSender Portal provides a guided, form-based interface for completing and submitting procurement notices. It supports the full range of notice types required under the EU procurement directives, including prior information notices, contract notices, contract award notices, and corrigenda.

The portal supports both the legacy EU standard forms (used for notices published before October 2023) and the eForms standard, which became mandatory for EU member states from October 2023 under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780. eForms is a richer, more structured XML-based notice format that improves data quality and machine readability across TED.

Key features of the eSender Portal include:

• Form completion assistance. The portal guides users through required and optional fields, flagging missing mandatory information before submission.
• Built-in validation. Notices are checked against the applicable schema before transmission. The portal surfaces validation errors at the form level, allowing users to correct issues without needing separate tools. For more advanced pre-submission testing, the eSentool (TED eSender Validation) tool is also available.
• Multilingual support. Users can input notice content in any EU official language and add translations for additional languages.
• Notice management. Users can save draft notices, retrieve previously submitted notices for corrigenda, and track submission status.
• Authentication. Access requires an EU Login account. The portal assigns submission credentials that tie notices to the authenticated authority.

The TED Publication Office maintains the portal and updates it in line with changes to EU procurement notice requirements.

Why it matters for bidders

The eSender Portal is primarily relevant to buyers rather than suppliers. However, understanding it helps bidders interpret notice provenance: a notice submitted via the eSender Portal is typically from a smaller or less technically resourced authority, which may use simpler procurement processes. Larger central government authorities and utilities tend to use integrated national platforms acting as eSenders.

For bidders, the practical value is that the eSender Portal's publication timeline follows the standard TED rules: notices appear on TED Search within five days of a valid submission. There is no faster or slower track based on which submission channel was used.

Example

A Croatian municipal authority is running a restricted procedure for a building renovation contract worth EUR 3 million. The municipality does not use a national eProcurement platform and submits the contract notice directly through the eSender Portal. The authority's procurement officer completes the eForms notice in the portal interface, corrects two validation errors flagged by the portal, and submits. The notice is published on TED within five days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the eSender Portal free?

Yes. Registration requires a free EU Login account. There is no charge for submitting notices through the portal.

Can I use the eSender Portal to submit notices for multiple authorities?

Yes. An EU Login account can be associated with multiple contracting authority profiles, allowing a procurement officer or external consultant to manage submissions on behalf of several authorities from one account.

What is the difference between the eSender Portal and eSentool?

The eSender Portal is the live notice submission interface. eSentool (TED eSender Validation) is a separate validation and testing tool used to check eForms notice files offline before submission, primarily by eSender technical teams. The portal has its own built-in validation, but eSentool provides more detailed diagnostic output.