Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)

The Official Journal of the European Union is the EU's official gazette, published electronically every working day by the Publications Office of the European Union. For procurement professionals, the OJEU is the authoritative pan-European notice board: any public contract above the mandatory publication threshold must be advertised here, making it the single most important monitoring channel for suppliers targeting European public sector opportunities.

What is the Official Journal of the European Union?

The OJEU has three series. The L Series contains EU legislation (regulations, directives, decisions). The C Series contains communications, resolutions, and notices of general interest. The S Series is the procurement supplement, which is the part relevant to public contracts.

The Supplement to the Official Journal (OJ S) is published daily (Monday to Friday, plus some Saturdays) and contains prior information notices, contract notices, contract award notices, and voluntary ex-ante transparency notices from contracting authorities across all EU member states, plus notices from EEA countries (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) and certain other signatories to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement.

Notices are submitted by contracting authorities via the eSenders system or directly through the eNotices2 platform, and are published simultaneously in all official EU languages. The S Series is freely accessible online via TED (Tenders Electronic Daily), the dedicated procurement portal.

Before Brexit, UK contracting authorities were required to publish above-threshold notices in the OJEU. Since 1 January 2021, UK authorities publish on Find a Tender Service (FTS) instead. Notices published on FTS before Brexit still exist in TED's archive.

Why it matters for bidders

The OJEU via TED is the starting point for any systematic European opportunity monitoring strategy. Because publication requirements mandate OJEU publication for all above-threshold contracts across 27 EU member states plus EEA countries, a single TED search can surface opportunities across the entire European market.

TED allows filtering by CPV code (Common Procurement Vocabulary), country, authority type, contract value, and procedure type, making it possible to build targeted alert feeds. Suppliers who monitor TED routinely see opportunities earlier and have more preparation time than those who rely on buyer newsletters or informal networks.

Example

A Romanian construction company seeking civil engineering contracts across Central Europe sets up a TED alert for CPV codes 45220000 (engineering works for railways and roads) with a filter for Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. Each morning it receives a digest of new contract notices and prior information notices from those four markets, allowing it to triage and respond efficiently.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is TED the same as the OJEU?

TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the online portal that gives access to the procurement section (S Series) of the OJEU. They are the same content. "TED" is the commonly used name for day-to-day procurement monitoring; "OJEU" refers to the official publication and its legal authority. When practitioners say "published in the OJEU," they mean the notice appears in TED.

How long after a contracting authority submits a notice does it appear in TED?

Standard publication timescales are five working days from submission. Accelerated publication (two working days) is available for open procedures where the authority has published a prior information notice at least 35 days before the contract notice.

Do Swiss or Ukrainian contracting authorities publish in the OJEU?

Switzerland is not in the EEA and does not publish in the OJEU, though it has bilateral procurement agreements with the EU. Ukraine's EU candidate status (from 2022) does not yet extend to OJEU publication obligations. Suppliers seeking opportunities in those markets must monitor national platforms in addition to TED.