EU procurement procedures explained

The EU procurement procedures used at Charnwood are explained below. These are:

• Open procedures
• Restricted procedures
• Competitive dialogue

Additional OJEU procedures, such as Competitive Procedure with Negotiation and Innovation Partnership are not currently used at this council.

Open procedures

The open procedure is a one stage process that should be used where the need for particular supplies, services or work can be clearly specified. 

This is then advertised to the marketplace and any interested parties may tender (bid their services) for the requirement. This is not recommended for projects that you expect to have a high number of interested parties.

Restricted procedure

This is a two stage procedure that should only be used for EU Threshold procurements or above.

Stage 1: A Standard Selection Questionnaire (SQ) is issued by the contracting authority to interested parties. The questionnaires set a minimum criteria relating to technical, economic and financial capabilities that the supplier must satisfy. 

Stage 2: Following an evaluation of the SQ's the authority will short-list a minimum of five suppliers who will be invited to quote/tender.

Competitive dialogue

This procedure is used for complex contracts when the authority is unable to fully define the technical means required to satisfy their need.

Any economic operator may submit a request to participate in response to a contract notice by providing the information for qualitative selection that is requested by the contracting authority.

Suppliers who meet the requirements are then invited to enter into a dialogue with the authority to develop one or more solution for its requirements and on which chosen bidders are invited to tender.