Below-threshold procurement contracts — often called low-value or simplified-procedure contracts — are subject to national rules rather than the full EU directive framework. They can be awarded faster, with fewer documentation requirements, and often allow direct negotiation or simplified quote processes. For SMEs, they represent the most accessible segment of the public procurement market and an ideal foundation for building public-sector experience.
The discovery challenge for below-threshold contracts is more severe than for TED tenders. Because they are not required to appear in the EU's official journal, they are scattered across national portals, regional platforms, and individual contracting authority websites. A Lithuanian IT company that monitors only TED will see zero below-threshold Lithuanian contracts — those appear on CVP IS and, in some cases, directly on government websites.
Awarda aggregates these fragmented national sources alongside TED, applying your CPV and value filters across the combined feed. You can set a maximum contract value in your profile to restrict results to below-threshold opportunities — useful for companies that want to build their track record before targeting larger contracts. The daily digest shows the most relevant matches across all monitored sources in one place.
For companies already winning below-threshold contracts and ready to scale up, Awarda's Growth plan extends coverage to unlimited CPV codes and all 27 EU member states, making it easy to expand monitoring alongside business growth without switching platforms.
View Awarda plansBelow-threshold contracts fall under national simplified-procedure rules rather than full EU directive requirements. Thresholds vary by country: in Lithuania, services/goods below €30,000 and works below €100,000 qualify. In Germany, services/goods below €214,000 apply different rules. These contracts have shorter timelines, fewer documentation requirements, and often allow direct negotiation with selected suppliers.
Because they are not required to appear in TED, below-threshold contracts are scattered across national portals (CVP IS, DTVP, BOAMP), regional platforms, and sometimes directly on contracting authorities' own websites. This fragmentation makes manual monitoring disproportionately difficult — a company that checks CVP IS daily can still miss notices published on a municipal website.
Three reasons: volume, competition, and track record. There are far more below-threshold contracts than above-threshold ones. Competition is lighter because larger firms frequently skip smaller awards where administrative cost exceeds potential margin. And every successfully completed contract builds the reference-project history that procurement evaluators look for when qualifying suppliers for larger tenders.