How UK Companies Can Successfully Win EU Tenders After Brexit

Brexit closed one door to EU public procurement, but two others remain open. UK companies still compete for billions in contracts across defence, pharma, and financial services through the WTO Government Procurement Agreement and Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The rules have changed in ways that catch the unprepared.

Missing a single compliance document now eliminates 40% of UK bids before evaluators even review technical quality. This guide shows you which contracts you can still win, how to register correctly, what documentation contracting authorities demand, and how to deploy staff across EU projects without creating legal risk.

Key Takeaways

UK firms can still bid for EU public contracts through the WTO Government Procurement Agreement and Trade and Cooperation Agreement, though automatic access has ended
Missing compliance documents causes 40% of UK bid rejections before evaluators review technical quality
An Employer of Record enables 24-hour onboarding of EU project staff with payroll that runs without errors across 180 countries
Defence, pharma, and financial services contracts reward compliance-first delivery over the lowest price
Posted Worker Directive rules and A1 certificates apply to UK employees working on EU projects

Eligibility of UK Companies for EU Public Contracts

UK companies retain access to most EU public procurement through two international agreements. The WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) covers contracts above specific euro thresholds, whilst the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) maintains access to sectors like defence, healthcare, and financial services.

Here's what changed: you no longer have automatic rights to bid on every EU tender. Your eligibility depends on whether the contracting authority is bound by the GPA or TCA, and whether they've chosen to extend access beyond treaty minimums.

The GPA sets threshold values that determine when UK firms can compete:

€140,000 for central government supplies and services
€215,000 for regional and local authority contracts
€5.35 million for works contracts

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Below these amounts, contracting authorities can exclude UK bidders entirely. Above them, you gain treaty-protected rights, though you'll still face compliance checks.

The TCA procurement chapter mirrors many GPA provisions but excludes certain utilities and transport sectors. For mid-market companies expanding across Europe, this means verifying each tender's coverage before investing time in a response.

Key Tendering Rules Under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Minimum tender response periods now range from 30 to 40 days depending on contract type. Standstill periods (the mandatory waiting time between award decision and contract signature) typically last 10 to 15 calendar days. For Finance and Legal teams managing multiple bids, this compressed schedule demands sharper internal coordination.

Miss a compliance detail during the standstill window, and you risk disqualification even after provisional selection. Defence and pharma contracts often extend these periods to accommodate additional security or quality checks.

Evaluation criteria now emphasise the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) approach. This method balances price against quality, sustainability, and social value rather than selecting the cheapest bid.

Common weighting splits include:

Price: 30-50% of total score
Technical quality: 25-40%
Delivery timelines: 10-20%
Environmental and social considerations: 5-15%

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This shift rewards bidders who demonstrate compliance depth and operational resilience. For UK companies in regulated sectors, it's an opportunity to showcase your track record in complex environments rather than competing solely on cost.

Portals and Databases to Find Live EU Opportunities

Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) remains the official EU-wide portal for public procurement notices. Registration takes under two hours: create an EU Login credential, complete your organisation profile, and configure search alerts based on Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) codes relevant to your sector.

TED publishes contract notices, prior information notices, and award decisions across all member states, with 293,000 tenders published in 2023 alone. For mid-market companies targeting specific regions, setting precise alerts prevents you from drowning in irrelevant opportunities, especially given that SMEs won 71% of EU public contracts in 2023.

Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS) offer a faster route for repeat suppliers. Think of a DPS as a pre-qualified supplier list that remains open throughout its duration, often four years. Once admitted, you can submit simplified tenders for individual call-offs without repeating the full qualification process.

The eCertis database containing 2,189 compliance records solves a persistent headache: understanding which certificates and documents each member state requires. Search by country and procurement type, and eCertis returns a detailed list of acceptable evidence along with issuing authorities and validity periods.

Registration and Pre-Qualification

Create an EU Login

Start by creating an EU Login account at the official EU authentication service. You'll need a valid email address, your company registration number, and basic organisational details. This single credential grants access to TED, eTendering platforms, and the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) service.

Complete the ESPD Questionnaire

The ESPD is a self-declaration form covering exclusion grounds, selection criteria, and technical capacity. It replaces the requirement to submit full evidence at the initial tender stage, though you'll provide supporting documents if shortlisted.

Key ESPD sections include:

Part II: Information about your company
Part III: Exclusion grounds (criminal convictions, tax compliance, insolvency status)
Part IV: Selection criteria (financial standing, technical capacity, quality assurance)
Part V: Reduction of candidates (if applicable to restricted procedures)

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Common mistakes? Leaving sections incomplete, providing vague answers to capacity questions, or failing to update the ESPD when your circumstances change. An incomplete ESPD often triggers automatic rejection before evaluators review your technical proposal.

Upload Supporting Evidence

Once submitted, contracting authorities may request supporting evidence within five working days. Keep these documents current and accessible in a centralised repository so your team can retrieve and submit them within tight deadlines.

Mandatory Documents and Certifications for UK Bidders

Financial Statements

Contracting authorities typically request audited accounts covering the past two fiscal years, demonstrating turnover that meets or exceeds the contract value. For mid-market companies with £10-50 million revenue, this threshold rarely poses problems, though currency considerations matter.

Submit financials in euros when possible, or provide clear conversion rates and dates. Evaluators compare your figures against contract values in euros, so eliminating ambiguity strengthens your position.

Technical Capacity Proof

For service contracts, you'll document past performance on similar projects, detailing scope, value, client references, and outcomes achieved. For goods supply, you'll demonstrate manufacturing capability, quality control processes, and supply chain resilience.

Staff qualification certificates matter more than many UK companies expect. EU contracting authorities often require named personnel CVs, professional certifications, and evidence of sector-specific training.

CE or UKCA Markings

Products placed on the EU market require CE marking, demonstrating conformity with EU safety, health, and environmental standards. UKCA marking applies to the UK market but holds no recognition in the EU.

Cybersecurity and ESG Declarations

Defence contracts routinely require Cyber Essentials Plus or equivalent certifications. Financial services tenders increasingly demand evidence of GDPR compliance, data protection impact assessments, and incident response capabilities. ESG criteria now appear in 60-70% of public contracts above €1 million.

Pricing, VAT and Currency Considerations

Split Pricing by Country

Pricing EU contracts demands country-specific cost modelling. Labour costs, social security contributions, and statutory benefits vary significantly across member states. A project requiring on-site staff in Germany carries different cost implications than one in Portugal, even for identical roles.

For mid-market companies without established EU entities, this creates a forecasting challenge. Actual employment expenses (including employer social contributions ranging from 25% to 45% of gross salary) require local expertise to calculate accurately.

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An Employer of Record (EOR) provides precise, country-specific cost projections before you commit to a bid. Rather than guessing at Polish employment taxes or French mandatory benefits, you get transparent pricing that feeds directly into your tender response.

Charging VAT on Cross-Border Services

When you supply services to an EU public body, the reverse charge mechanism typically applies. The contracting authority accounts for VAT, and you invoice without adding it. For supplies to private sector entities or mixed contracts, you may require VAT registration in the destination country.

Mitigating Currency Risk

A three-year framework priced in euros exposes you to GBP/EUR fluctuations that can eliminate profit margins if sterling weakens. Currency strategies to consider:

Price in euros and hold euro-denominated reserves for project costs
Build a currency adjustment clause into your tender (where permitted)
Use forward contracts to lock in exchange rates for known payment milestones
Partner with an EOR that manages multi-currency payroll, reducing your direct exposure

Staffing EU Projects Safely With EOR

24-Hour Onboarding Through an Employer of Record

Deploying staff to EU projects without a local entity creates immediate compliance risk. Each member state enforces its own employment law, social security obligations, and tax withholding rules. Misclassify a worker as a contractor when local law deems them an employee, and you face back taxes, penalties, and potential criminal liability.

An Employer of Record becomes the legal employer of your EU-based project staff, handling contracts, payroll, benefits, and compliance whilst you retain day-to-day management, reducing onboarding time by 35%. For HR and Legal teams, this means certainty: employment contracts reflect local law, social contributions calculate correctly, and payroll runs without errors.

Teamed offers 24-hour onboarding across 180 countries, enabling you to mobilise project teams faster than competitors stuck waiting for entity registration. When a defence contract requires security-cleared personnel in Poland within two weeks, or a pharma tender demands GMP-qualified staff in Ireland immediately, speed becomes a competitive advantage.

Meeting Posted Worker and A1 Certificate Rules

The Posted Worker Directive governs temporary assignments of employees to another EU member state. Even though the UK is no longer bound by the directive, EU rules still apply when your UK employees work on EU soil. You'll require A1 certificates (portable documents confirming which country's social security system applies) to avoid dual contributions.

For companies managing multiple EU projects simultaneously, A1 administration becomes significant overhead. An EOR handles this automatically, ensuring certificates are obtained, renewed, and archived for audit purposes.

Payroll in Euros Without Hidden Fees

Some providers advertise low headline rates but add charges for currency conversion, local tax filings, benefits administration, or compliance updates. By the time you've paid all the extras, your effective cost per employee has increased 20-30%.

Teamed's pricing is transparent: £400 per employee per month for EOR services, covering everything from contracts to payroll to compliance monitoring. Built-in AI agents automate 70% of payroll, HR, and compliance tasks whilst in-country experts handle the complex cases that software alone can't resolve.

Common Bid Failures and How to Avoid Them

Non-Compliant Evidence

Contracting authorities disqualify responses for missing certificates, expired insurance policies, or documents that don't match the ESPD declarations. In one recent analysis of UK bids to EU tenders, 40% of rejections occurred at the compliance stage before evaluators reviewed technical quality.

Country-specific requirements create traps for the unprepared:

Germany: May require a "Gewerbeanmeldung" (trade registration) even for service contracts
France: Often demands "attestations fiscales et sociales" (tax and social security certificates) issued within the past three months
Spain: "Certificado de estar al corriente" proves tax compliance but requires a Spanish tax identification number

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Start gathering evidence the moment you identify a target opportunity, not when the deadline looms.

Under-Scoring Quality Criteria

Evaluators expect detailed methodology, risk mitigation plans, and evidence of past performance. A thin technical response scores poorly against competitors who demonstrate deep sector knowledge and proven delivery capability.

For defence and pharma contracts, quality often outweighs price 60:40 or even 70:30. Evaluators want confidence that you can deliver securely, compliantly, and to specification.

Ignoring Local Social Value Priorities

Social value now features in most EU public procurement. Priorities vary by country: Germany emphasises apprenticeships and skills development, France values local employment and supply chain diversity, whilst Nordic countries focus heavily on environmental sustainability.

You don't require an EU establishment to deliver social value. Commitments to hire locally for project roles, partner with regional suppliers, or support community initiatives all contribute. What matters is specificity: vague promises to "support local economies" score poorly against concrete commitments with measurable outcomes.

Five Tactics to Improve Win Rates Post-Brexit

1. Pre-Market Engagement

Contracting authorities welcome early dialogue about upcoming procurements. Prior information notices (PINs) signal future opportunities 35 days to 12 months in advance. Use them to request clarification meetings, understand evaluation priorities, and shape your capability development.

2. Local Delivery Partnerships

Partnering with EU-based companies strengthens your bid by demonstrating local presence, knowledge, and capability. Joint ventures and consortium arrangements are explicitly encouraged in EU procurement, particularly for large infrastructure or multi-disciplinary projects.

3. AI-Driven Compliance Checks

Built-in AI agents can identify compliance gaps before you submit, scanning your response against tender requirements and flagging missing documents, incomplete answers, or inconsistencies between sections.

Teamed's AI agents automate document verification for EOR and payroll compliance, ensuring that employment contracts, benefit elections, and tax filings align with local requirements.

4. Competitive but Realistic Pricing

Benchmark your proposed rates against comparable contracts awarded in the past 12-24 months, available through TED's contract award notices. Avoid pricing below cost to win. EU procurement rules allow contracting authorities to reject "abnormally low" bids.

5. Proof of Past Performance

Document UK project success in terms that EU evaluators recognise. Rather than citing "compliance with UK standards," describe outcomes: "Delivered pharmaceutical supply chain meeting GDP guidelines, zero non-conformances across three MHRA inspections."

Why Compliance-First Delivery Wins High-Risk Sectors

Defence and Dual-Use Goods

Defence contracts demand security clearances that UK companies can still obtain through NATO frameworks and bilateral agreements. However, you'll also face export control compliance checks, supply chain verification requirements, and enhanced due diligence on beneficial ownership.

Pharma GxP Requirements

Good Manufacturing Practice, Good Distribution Practice, and Good Laboratory Practice remain harmonised between UK and EU standards for now. Your existing MHRA approvals and ISO 13485 certifications translate directly to EU tender requirements.

Financial Services Data Safeguards

Even though the UK has adequacy decisions allowing data flows to the EU, many contracting authorities require Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) as additional protection. Your tender response addresses data protection by detailing processing agreements, security measures, and incident response procedures.

"The complexity of EU compliance isn't a barrier, it's our competitive advantage. By demonstrating that we handle the toughest regulatory environments as standard, we prove to contracting authorities that their project is safe in our hands." – Legal Director, UK defence contractor

Move Forward With Confidence in EU Tenders

Winning EU tenders post-Brexit demands more than competitive pricing and technical capability. You require precise understanding of treaty coverage, country-specific compliance requirements, and the operational infrastructure to deliver across borders without legal risk.

The companies succeeding in this environment treat compliance as a strategic advantage. They invest in understanding procurement rules, build relationships with EU partners, and deploy staff through structures that provide certainty for HR, Legal, and Finance teams alike.

An Employer of Record eliminates the single biggest barrier to EU project delivery: the complexity and risk of multi-country employment. When you can onboard qualified staff in 24 hours, run payroll without errors in 180 countries, and maintain audit-ready compliance documentation automatically, you gain the confidence to bid aggressively and deliver reliably.

Teamed solves the toughest employment challenges in Europe's most regulated sectors where compliance isn't negotiable and mistakes carry material consequences. Our built-in AI agents automate 70% of payroll, HR, and compliance tasks, whilst in-country experts handle the complex cases that require human judgement.

Talk to the experts about staffing your next EU project with confidence.

FAQs About EU Tenders for UK Companies

Can UK companies still access EU research and innovation funding programmes?

UK participation in Horizon Europe and other EU research programmes depends on specific association agreements negotiated separately from the TCA. Companies can participate in certain calls as third-country participants, though funding terms may differ from EU-based organisations.

How long does the full tender process typically take?

Most EU public procurement processes run 90-180 days from publication to contract signature, including tender preparation (30-60 days), evaluation (30-45 days), standstill period (10-15 days), and contract finalisation (20-30 days). Complex or high-value contracts may extend to 12 months.

What insurance coverage levels are typically required?

Professional indemnity and public liability insurance requirements vary by contract value and sector, typically ranging from €2 million to €10 million for mid-market contracts. Defence and healthcare projects often require higher coverage levels.

Where would contract disputes be resolved?

Dispute resolution mechanisms are specified in individual contracts, typically favouring the courts or arbitration systems of the contracting authority's member state. Some contracts include mediation clauses as a first step.

Do UK companies face disadvantages compared to EU-based competitors?

The TCA and GPA prohibit discrimination based on nationality for covered contracts, meaning UK and EU bidders receive equal treatment in evaluation. However, some member states apply tie-break rules favouring local employment or supply chains as social value criteria.