What Are eForms in Public Procurement? What Every Supplier Needs to Know

If you've noticed that public procurement notices look different recently — more structured, more data-rich, sometimes harder to navigate at first glance — eForms are likely the reason.

eForms are the EU's new standardised format for publishing procurement notices. They replaced the older, more flexible notice formats that buyers had used for decades, and their rollout represents the most significant change to how tender notices are structured in the EU in a generation.

For suppliers, eForms matter because they change how opportunities are published, how they should be read, and — increasingly — how procurement platforms like Mercell can surface and filter them. Understanding eForms helps you stay ahead, find opportunities faster, and avoid missing critical details buried in a new format.

This guide explains what eForms are, what changed, and what it means for your day-to-day tendering activity.

What Are eForms?

eForms (short for electronic forms) are a standardised set of digital notice templates used to publish procurement information in the Official Journal of the EU (OJEU) and on the TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) portal.

They were introduced under EU Implementing Regulation 2019/1780, which defined a new, machine-readable format for the 40 types of procurement notices that public sector buyers are required to publish. These include:

• Prior Information Notices (PINs): Early signals of upcoming procurement activity

• Contract Notices: The formal invitation to tender

• Contract Award Notices: Confirmation of who won, and at what value

• Modifications: Changes to live or awarded contracts

eForms became mandatory for all EU member states from October 2023 for above-threshold contracts published on TED. National below-threshold notices may follow different rules depending on the member state.

The core change is simple but significant: notices are no longer free-form text documents. They are structured data fields — each piece of information has a defined place and a defined format. That makes them more consistent, more searchable, and more machine-readable. It also means there is less room for buyers to write notices in their own style, which takes some adjustment for suppliers used to scanning narrative text for key information.

What Changed — and Why It Matters to Suppliers

Before eForms

Previously, procurement notices were published using older EU standard form templates (e.g., CN01, F02). These allowed buyers significant freedom in how they structured the text. A skilled supplier could quickly scan a notice and extract the key details — scope, deadline, value, criteria — based on familiar patterns.

After eForms

eForms replace those templates with approximately 40 notice types, each containing hundreds of possible data fields. Some fields are mandatory; many are optional. The format is designed to be read by machines (for data aggregation and analysis) as much as by humans.

For suppliers, this creates both an opportunity and a challenge:

The opportunity: eForms contain far more structured data than old notices — including CPV codes, estimated values, procedure types, award criteria weightings, and sustainability requirements. Platforms that can parse this data (including Mercell) can surface more relevant opportunities with greater precision, and alert you to types of tenders that match your exact profile.

The challenge: Notices that are primarily structured as data fields can feel harder to read than a narrative description. Key information is spread across multiple sections, and optional fields mean some notices are more complete than others.

Pro tip: Don't read eForms like a document — treat them like a form. Go directly to the fields that matter: the description of the contract, the CPV codes, the estimated value, the tender deadlines, the selection criteria, and the award criteria. Everything else is context.

The Key Sections of an eForm Notice

Knowing where to look saves time. Here's how the most important information is typically structured in an eForm contract notice:

Section I: Contracting Authority

The buyer's name, type, and contact details. Use this to research the buyer — understanding who they are, what they typically procure, and whether you have an existing relationship is part of qualifying tender opportunities effectively.

Section II: Object of the Contract

The most important section for initial screening. This contains the title, main CPV code, description of the contract, and estimated value. If this section doesn't match your service offering, move on quickly.

Section III: Legal, Economic, Financial and Technical Information

This section covers the qualification criteria — minimum turnover, insurance requirements, technical certifications, and experience references. Check this before investing time in a full bid response.

Section IV: Procedure

The procurement procedure being used (open, restricted, competitive dialogue, etc.), the tender deadlines, and key dates. Note the submission deadline and work backwards to assess whether you have time to prepare a competitive response.

Section VI: Complementary Information

Additional conditions, links to procurement documents, and the review body for complaints. This section often contains the link to the buyer's eTendering portal where you'll actually submit your bid.

eForms and Sustainability: New Fields You Should Know

One of the significant additions in eForms is a range of new fields specifically designed to capture sustainability and social criteria. These include:

• Strategic procurement fields: Whether the contract includes environmental, social, or innovation considerations

• Green procurement labels: Specific environmental standards the buyer requires

• Accessibility requirements: Whether the goods or services must meet disability accessibility standards

These fields make it easier for buyers to signal — and for suppliers to spot — contracts where social value and sustainability credentials will form part of the evaluation. If you've invested in your environmental or social credentials, eForms help you identify the contracts where that investment pays off most directly.

What eForms Mean for Your Tender Monitoring Strategy

eForms are designed to make procurement data more consistent and machine-readable. For suppliers, the practical implication is that your approach to finding public tenders should lean increasingly on platforms that can parse this structured data effectively.

Manual searches on TED have always been cumbersome. With eForms, the volume and granularity of data has increased significantly — making automated monitoring even more valuable than it was before.

A good tender monitoring solution will:

• Ingest eForm data automatically from TED and national portals

• Extract key fields (CPV codes, contract values, deadlines, procedure types) and make them searchable

• Alert you to relevant opportunities based on your saved criteria, before deadlines become a problem

• Flag sustainability fields so you can prioritise contracts that match your social and environmental credentials

Pro tip: Review and update your CPV code watchlist regularly. eForms use CPV codes more consistently than old notice formats — which means a well-configured alert system now catches more of the right opportunities and fewer irrelevant ones.

eForms for Buyers: A Brief Note

If you work on the buyer side of procurement, eForms also changed your workflow. The structured data entry process is more rigorous than drafting a free-text notice — and getting optional fields right (rather than leaving them blank) improves the quality of responses you'll receive.

For more on how public buyers evaluate tenders and structure their award criteria, see our dedicated guide.

How Mercell Makes eForms Work For You

Mercell ingests eForm data directly from TED and national portals across Europe, parsing the structured fields automatically so you get clean, searchable tender information — without having to navigate raw notice formats yourself.

With Mercell, you can search and filter tenders by CPV code, contract value, procedure type, and sustainability fields drawn straight from eForm data, set up automated alerts so relevant notices reach you the moment they're published, and use tools and technology designed specifically to make finding and qualifying tender opportunities faster and more accurate.

eForms make procurement data better. Mercell makes sure you get the most out of it.

Conclusion

eForms are not just a technical formatting change — they represent a structural shift in how procurement information is published and consumed across Europe. For suppliers, adapting to this shift means understanding the new notice structure, knowing where to find the information that matters, and using platforms that can leverage the richer data eForms provide.

The suppliers who get ahead of this change will find tenders faster, qualify opportunities more accurately, and spend less time reading irrelevant notices. The future of public procurement is data-driven — and eForms are a significant step in that direction.