Read the tender's eligibility and delivery requirements before deciding whether you need a local company or partner. Historic winner locations can help you assess a market, but they do not establish a local-company requirement. Across TED award notices for the EU27 and Norway, published from October 2025 to September 2026, 2.6% of winning organisation entries are registered outside the buyer's country. The other 97.4% are registered in it.
Luxembourg is at 38.6%, 686 of 1,778. Belgium is at 18.1%, 1,920 of 10,589. Ireland is at 15.0%, 1,029 of 6,848. Malta is at 14.8%. Denmark is at 13.9%. Finland is at 5.5%, 599 of 10,929. France is at 1.0%, 865 of 87,308. Bulgaria is at 0.6%. Romania is at 0.3%, 415 of 125,695.
Direct wins are rare. Local subsidiaries are not.
This chart counts the direct route only. The winner's registered country differs from the buyer's country. A company registered in the buyer's country, including a subsidiary of a foreign parent, counts as local. The unit is a winning organisation entry rather than contract value, so a large contract and a small one carry the same weight.
The Commission has measured both routes. Its 2017 study, using TED awards from 2009 to 2015 with values between EUR 1,000 and EUR 200 million, found direct cross-border wins on 1.7% of awards and 3% of value. Indirect wins, where the winner is a local subsidiary of a foreign company, were 21.9% of awards and 20.4% of value. The only countries above 10% on the direct count of awards were Malta (11.9%), Ireland (13.0%), and Luxembourg (16.8%). The study's explanation is the size of the market. A small country has fewer local bidders, and a foreign firm has less reason to open a subsidiary there, so it bids from home.
The European Court of Auditors found the direct share stable at about 5% of contracts across 2011 to 2021, up from about 2% before the single market. Over that decade, Luxembourg awarded almost 30% of contracts to companies abroad, Ireland about 15%, and Belgium about 10%. Most member states, including all of the larger ones, stayed under 5%. The Court also reported a Commission update for 2016 to 2019: below EUR 200 million, indirect awards were about 20% of procedures and direct awards 2.4%; above EUR 200 million, indirect awards were about 28% and direct awards 6%. The Court could not rebuild the indirect figure from TED, because award notices have no unique identifier for the company.
Our 2.6% is the direct route again, for one later year, counted per winning organisation rather than per contract. The same countries sit at the top. Luxembourg, Belgium, and Ireland were high in 2009 to 2015, high in 2011 to 2021, and high in the year of this chart. France, at 1.0% now, was at the bottom of the Court's ranking as well.
The studies show that local subsidiaries account for a substantial share of cross-border procurement. That is one route to market. The historic shares do not explain why a particular company won or whether your next tender needs a local entity.
What would make a local presence necessary?
For an EU-established company, EU guidance on cross-border bids confirms the right to compete in other EU countries without discrimination. A low share of foreign-registered winners does not remove that right. Bidders established outside the EU need to check the market-access rules that apply to them.
Read the documents for professional registrations, licences, security conditions, service locations, response times and the language of delivery. A requirement to deliver locally does not by itself establish a requirement to incorporate locally. If a condition is unclear, ask the buyer through the tender's clarification channel before committing to a subsidiary, consortium or partner.
How to use it
- Check that your bidding company is eligible and can meet the selection criteria and delivery conditions. Decide whether you can deliver directly or whether a partner supplies a capability you need.
- Use the country chart to guide further research. Luxembourg, Belgium and Ireland have a larger recorded share of direct cross-border wins. Malta and Denmark are also above the pooled line, at 14.8% and 13.9%. Look at comparable buyers and contracts before treating those shares as relevant to your offer.
- In France, Spain, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, foreign-registered winners are less common in this record. Spain and Poland are both at 1.4%. Investigate language, service coverage, sector mix and the requirements of comparable tenders. Consider a local partner where it improves delivery or fills a qualification gap, rather than because a country percentage appears to require one.
- Finland sits at 5.5%, above the 2.6% line. About 19 in 20 winning entries are still registered in Finland. That describes the historic mix; it does not determine your eligibility or your chance of winning the notice in front of you.
- Focus your monitoring on markets where you have the language, references and delivery capacity. Then check the available days in what a tender response window is and the historic competition benchmark in how to read competition before you bid. If the buyer uses a framework, check whether you can enter it: how to monitor framework agreements.
Sources
- TED Search API v3, contract award notices (can-standard), EU27 and Norway, published October 2025 to September 2026. A win counts as cross-border when the winner's country differs from the buyer's country. The unit is the winning organisation entry.
- European Commission, Measurement of impact of cross-border penetration in public procurement (2017). TED awards, 2009 to 2015.
- European Commission, Study on the measurement of cross-border penetration in the EU public procurement market (2021), as reported in European Court of Auditors, Special Report 28/2023.
- European Court of Auditors, Special Report 28/2023, Public procurement in the EU.
- European Commission, Public tendering rules: cross-border bids.
