How to monitor framework agreements

Split your monitoring by country, or you will watch the wrong notice. Across TED award notices for the EU27 and Norway, published from October 2025 to September 2026, 26.1% carry a framework flag. In Romania that share is 74.1%. In Poland it is 1.6%.

A framework agreement sets the terms for later purchases. You join at the first competition. Article 33 of Directive 2014/24/EU caps the term at four years for public contracts, unless the subject matter justifies longer. After that, the supplier list stays shut. A later award notice is often a call-off from that list, and a firm that missed the entry is not in the contest.

A notice counts here when TED field BT-765 is set on any lot to anything other than none. The count is notices. Award amounts are often missing, and they are not in one currency, so this is not a share of public spend.

Romania is at 74.1%, 18,227 of 24,597. France is at 59.6%. Croatia is at 58.9%. Belgium is at 50.6%. Sweden is at 49.4%. Finland is at 20.8%, 1,193 of 5,746, rank 15 of 28. Greece is at 3.5%. Lithuania is at 2.9%. Poland is at 1.6%, 818 of 50,048. Cyprus is at 1.1%, 11 of 972.

Frameworks were already common, and uneven

The country split is not new. A 2011 study for the Commission by PwC, London Economics, and Ecorys, using TED awards from 2006 to 2010, found framework agreements on about 11% of contract award notices and about 17% of value. Use was growing at about 18% a year. Most of the growth was in large buyers, including France and Spain. Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were already heavy users. Southern Europe and the smaller EEA countries used them least.

A 2014 Commission study on SME access and demand aggregation, using above-threshold awards from 2009 to 2011, put frameworks at nearly 25% of contract value and about one in six awards. Our 26.1% is a share of award notices in a later year, not a share of euros, so it is a cousin of those figures rather than the next point on the same line. The geography still rhymes. Sweden is at 49.4% of award notices in this chart. The Swedish Competition Authority, counting published procurements in 2014, found frameworks on 32% of procurements overall and on 47% of those above the directive thresholds. Poland, at 1.6% of notices in our year, is the other end of the same old map.

The flag on an award notice is a monitoring signal. It does not say the buyer promised to purchase the estimated volume, and it does not say every framework in that country runs for four years. Read the agreement for the term, the call-off rules, and the volume language.

For a small firm the entry competition is the sale. Arosa, Arribas, and Vila, writing in Public Money & Management (2024), found that framework agreements in Spanish IT services reduced the chance of an SME winning a contract by 34% against the wider market. The how-to for selling as an SME is here. The legal mechanics, including the difference from a dynamic purchasing system, are in the framework agreement guide.

How to use it

1. Put Romania, France, Croatia, Belgium, and Sweden on a framework calendar. In Romania, France, and Croatia, most award notices already sit inside a framework. In Belgium and Sweden, about half do. Diary the expiry and the next entry competition. A contract notice that appears later may be a purchase from a list you can no longer join.
2. Put Cyprus, Poland, Lithuania, and Greece on a contract-notice calendar. Framework flags are rare there. The live competition is the one to read. This matches the older finding that southern Europe used frameworks lightly. Check the notice anyway. A rare tool is still used.
3. Keep both calendars for Finland. At 20.8%, about one award notice in five is a framework, below the 26.1% line. Track those expiries, and still read the open competitions.
4. When you find a framework, record four facts before you decide to bid the entry: the end date, whether call-offs are ranked or reopened, the lots you can actually deliver, and whether the estimated volume is a commitment. The guide walks through single-supplier and multi-supplier forms.
5. After the calendar is split, check the field you are entering in how to read competition before you bid. A framework entry in a one-bid sector and an open construction competition ask for different preparation.

Sources

• TED Search API v3, contract award notices (can-standard), EU27 and Norway, published October 2025 to September 2026. A notice counts as a framework when BT-765 is not "none" on any lot. The unit is the notice, not the contract value.
• PwC, London Economics, and Ecorys, Public procurement in Europe: Cost and effectiveness (2011), prepared for the European Commission. TED awards, 2006 to 2010.
• European Commission, SMEs' access to public procurement markets and aggregation of demand in the EU (2014).
• Swedish Competition Authority, Facts and figures on public procurement in Sweden, 2014, Report 2015:9.
• Daniel Arosa, Iván Arribas, and José Vila, Negative effects on SMEs' success rates when framework agreements are used, Public Money & Management, 2024.
• Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 33.