What does open procedure mean?
The open procedure is one of the standard procedure types in European procurement law for contracts above the EU thresholds. It offers the highest level of transparency and competition, because any interested company can submit a bid in response to the contract notice. There is no upfront suitability check and no competitive call for participation. The bidders' suitability is only checked after the bids are received, as part of the bid evaluation.
The open procedure follows a clearly structured process. The contracting authority publishes a contract notice in the Official Journal of the EU (TED) and makes the tender documents available for download. Interested companies can submit their bids during the bid period. Once the bid deadline has passed, the contracting authority checks the bids in several steps: a formal check, a suitability check, an arithmetic and technical check, and the evaluation against the award criteria.
In practice, the open procedure is the most common procedure type above the EU thresholds, because it best matches the procurement principles of transparency, competition and equal treatment. It is especially suited to standardized supply and service contracts and to construction work with a clearly definable scope. Below the EU thresholds, the public tender (öffentliche Ausschreibung) corresponds to the open procedure.
Relevance for bidders
For bidders, the open procedure offers the lowest barrier to market entry, because no prequalification or request to participate is needed. Any company can submit a bid, as long as it meets the suitability criteria stated in the tender documents. This makes the open procedure especially attractive for new market entrants and smaller companies that do not yet have many references.
At the same time, open access means that competition is usually greater than in restricted procedures. Bidders should therefore pay particular attention to precise pricing and a convincing presentation of their capabilities. A careful analysis of the award criteria and their weighting is key to a competitive bid.
Legal framework
The open procedure is governed by Section 15 VgV (Public Procurement Ordinance). Under Section 15(2) VgV, the minimum bid period is 35 days from the date the contract notice is sent. If bids are submitted electronically, the period can be shortened by five days. For construction work, the rules of VOB/A-EU in Section 3a apply. EU Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU governs the open procedure in Article 27. The contracting authority can choose freely between the open and the restricted procedure without having to justify its choice.