European tendering procedure

Purchases above a certain value must be made via a European tendering procedure.

Purchases subject to the European procedure

The provisions of the European procedure 2014/25 transposed in the Law of 17 june 2016 on public procurement, of the Royal Decree of 18 june 2017 on public procurement procedure in special sectors. and of the Royal Decree of 22 june 2017 amending the Rayal Decree of 14 january 2013 setting the general rules for the execution of public contracts state that as a rule a European tendering procedure must be used for all deliveries of goods or services worth at least € 428,000 excluding VAT and for the execution of works worth a minimum of € 5,350,000 excluding VAT.

Details of the procedure

  1. A European tendering procedure could start with the optional publication of a Periodic Indicative Notice , in which candidate suppliers are notified of the purchases planned for the 12 months ahead (at the most).
  2. If an actual call for tenders is launched, Elia publishes a Contract Notice . In this phase, candidate suppliers are invited to submit their application dossier. Submission of a dossier as part of a contract that is subject to the European Directive does not require that the candidate supplier has already been approved by Elia. In some cases, Elia also uses other types of procedure like Qualification Systems .
  3. Based on the criteria set out in the notice, Elia selects the candidates who will go on to the tendering procedure , in other words those candidates from whom Elia will accept tenders in response to its call for tenders.
  4. Once the tenders have been received and examined, suppliers where required are invited to take part in one or more rounds of negotiations .
  5. Following the negotiations, Elia makes a final evaluation of the tenders and awards the contract.
  6. The decision is announced with the publication of a Contract Award Notice.


The Periodic Indicative Notice, the Contract Notice and the Contract Award Notice are published in the Official Journal of the European Union and in the Belgian Public Tender Bulletin.

Documents for candidates

Documents to be provided by the candidates are specific for each tender.

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