All inivitations to tender that exceed certain thesholds have to be published in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (S series, Official Journal S or OJ. S) and thus announced EU-wide. Since July 1998, the Official Journal S is only available exclusively in an electronic format:

TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the online version of the 'Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union "for the European public procurement.

Annually, contracting authorities in the EU announce works and supply contracts in the amount of more than 300 billion euros. Every day, more than 1,000 invitations to tender are published in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union including contract notices of the following categories:

- Public works coontracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts from all European Member-States;

- Contract covereds by Directive 2004/17/EC ( ‘Utilities’)(for the utilities water, energy, traffic
   and telecommunications);

- Public contracts by EU-institutions;

- Contracts in the context of external assistance policies and the the European Development Fund
   (ACP countries);

- PHARE, TACIS and other contracts from Central and Eastern Europe;

- Projects funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Central Bank
(ECB) and the European Bank funded for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD);

- Contracts from the European Economic Area (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein);

- Contracts according to the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)which was concluded within th General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of the World Trade Organization (WTO)
   Contracts from Switzerland;

- Contract notices concerning the European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG);


- Public contracts for air services.