Tenders Electronic Daily (TED)
Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) is the European Union's official online journal for above-threshold public procurement notices from all 27 EU member states plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. Every defense tender above the EU contract value thresholds — €431,000 for supplies and services, €5,382,000 for works — must be published on TED in 24 official languages. It is the canonical cross-border source for European defense procurement opportunities.
Etymology / origin
Operated by the EU Publications Office since 1998. TED succeeded the printed S-series of the Official Journal of the European Union and digitised the legal-publication requirement that now sits under Public Procurement Directives 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU, plus the Defence and Security Procurement Directive 2009/81/EC.
Where you encounter this term
TED is the source feed for every above-threshold defense contract published by national agencies such as BAAINBw (Germany), DGA (France), Forsvarsmateriell (Norway), and FMV (Sweden). It does not include below-threshold contracts — those publish only on national portals such as Doffin, e-Avrop, or udbud.dk — nor does it include NATO supranational bodies like NSPA and NCIA, which run their own procurement systems. The TED v3 API returns notices as structured JSON with field-level access to buyer name, CPV codes, estimated value, and award winner.
Example — from the WULFRN database
WULFRN ingests defense notices from TED daily. As of May 2026, TED is the primary source for the database's German (6,243 defense records), French (1,012), and Polish (1,700) coverage, contributing the bulk of the 22,351 verified defense rows.
Related glossary terms
- DoffinNorway's national procurement portal, the primary source for below-threshold Norwegian defense tenders that never reach TED.
- Below-threshold procurementPublic-sector contracts below the EU procurement directive thresholds, published only on national portals — invisible on TED.
- NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA)NATO's executive agency for multinational procurement, logistics, and lifecycle management — operates outside the EU TED system.
- Försvarets materielverk (FMV)Sweden's defense materiel administration, primary contracting authority for Swedish Armed Forces equipment and systems.
- Forsvarsmateriell (Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency)Norway's central defense materiel agency, the primary contracting authority for Norwegian Armed Forces equipment and sustainment.
Continue reading on WULFRN
Frequently asked questions
What is TED in defense procurement?
TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the European Union's official platform for publishing above-threshold public procurement notices, including all defense and security contracts above €431,000 from EU/EEA member states. It is the canonical cross-border source for European defense procurement opportunities.
How do I search for defense tenders on TED?
TED's expert search supports filtering by CPV code, buyer name, country, and publication date. CPV codes starting 35200000+ cover military equipment specifically, while 35100000–35199999 covers dual-use security and emergency equipment. WULFRN aggregates TED's defense-relevant notices alongside national portal feeds for a single search interface.
What is the difference between TED and national procurement portals?
TED publishes only above-threshold contracts (€431K+ for supplies and services). National portals like Doffin (Norway), e-Avrop (Sweden), or udbud.dk (Denmark) include below-threshold notices that never appear on TED. NATO bodies like NSPA and NCIA publish on their own portals separately. WULFRN unifies all of these into one defense-classified dataset.