Open Procedure

The open procedure is the default competitive route in European public procurement. It removes pre-qualification barriers: any supplier who sees the contract notice may obtain the tender documents and submit a complete bid. Contracting authorities in EU member states, the UK, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and other EEA-adjacent countries rely on the open procedure for the majority of above-threshold contracts.

What is the Open Procedure?

Under Article 27 of Directive 2014/24/EU (the classic sector directive), the open procedure runs in a single stage. The contracting authority publishes a contract notice on TED (the Official Journal supplement), and any economic operator may submit a full tender by the deadline. There is no separate selection phase before bids are received: suppliers submit their selection evidence (financial standing, technical capacity) together with their priced offer in one submission.

The minimum time for receipt of tenders is 35 calendar days from the date the contract notice is sent for publication. This can be reduced to 30 days where a prior information notice has been published, and to 15 days in cases of duly substantiated urgency. In the UK, the Procurement Act 2023 sets a comparable minimum of 25 days for open competition, reduced from the 30 days that applied under the previous regulations.

Contracting authorities evaluate all submitted tenders by first verifying that each bidder meets the selection criteria, then scoring the compliant tenders against the published award criteria. A supplier who fails the selection threshold is excluded before the award evaluation stage.

Why it matters for bidders

The open procedure is the most accessible route into public contracting. Because there is no shortlisting gate, any supplier that meets the selection criteria has a legal right to participate. You do not need to be invited, pre-approved, or on a roster.

The practical trade-off is increased competition: buyers can receive large numbers of submissions, and evaluation periods can be lengthy. For buyers, this resource burden is one reason they sometimes prefer the restricted procedure for complex contracts, where the field is narrowed before full tender documents are issued.

For bidders, the open procedure rewards close monitoring of TED, national portals, and buyer profile pages. Opportunities appear as contract notices and run to fixed timelines: seeing a notice late leaves little time to prepare a quality response.

Example

A Dutch municipality publishes an open procedure on TED for the supply of office furniture with an estimated value of EUR 600,000. Any furniture supplier operating in the EU or a country covered by the WTO Government Procurement Agreement may download the tender documents and submit a full bid within 30 days. A small Polish supplier who spots the notice on TED competes on equal terms with a large Dutch incumbent, and the municipality evaluates all compliant bids against the published award criteria.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the open procedure mandatory above the EU thresholds?

No. The open procedure is one of several lawful routes above the EU procurement thresholds. Contracting authorities may also use the restricted procedure, competitive procedure with negotiation, competitive dialogue, or innovation partnership, provided the conditions for the chosen procedure are met.

Can a buyer use the open procedure for complex requirements?

Yes, but it is less common for highly technical or novel contracts. Where the specification can be defined precisely in advance, the open procedure works well. For complex requirements that cannot be fully specified without market input, buyers tend to use procedures that allow dialogue or negotiation.

What happens if too many tenders are received?

The buyer must evaluate all compliant tenders. There is no mechanism within the open procedure to reduce the field once bids are received. Buyers who anticipate high volumes sometimes prefer the restricted procedure, which allows shortlisting before full tenders are requested.