A tender response window is the number of calendar days from the notice publication date to the submission deadline. It is the time a supplier actually has to read the documents, decide, and file. It is measured on the notice, in calendar days, before anyone starts writing.
The map below colours 28 European markets by the share of TED competition notices that gave suppliers fewer than 21 days. The period is 14 July 2025 to 14 July 2026.
The European figure, and the countries at the ends
Of 182,607 TED competition notices in that year, 165,102 had both a publication date and a deadline, with a window between 0 and 1,000 days. That is the measurable set. Of those, 36,776, or 22.3%, gave suppliers fewer than 21 days.
The ranking puts every market on one scale. Croatia is at 51.8%. France is at 11.2%. Luxembourg is the low end, at 8.2%. Finland sits just under the European figure, at 21.3%.
A bar at or above 22.3% means that market’s short-deadline share is at least as high as Europe’s. A bar below it means fewer of that market’s notices fall inside 21 days. The European line is the share of all measurable notices, so large markets pull it.
A short-deadline share and a typical window answer different questions
The second map shows the median window: the typical number of calendar days in that country. Europe’s median is 31.0 days. Croatia’s median is 20.0 days, in line with a market where half the notices are already under 21. France’s median is 32.1 days.
The Netherlands is the clearest split. The median there is 46.1 days, the longest in this set, and 16.4% of measurable Dutch notices still close inside 21 days. A team that plans around “Dutch buyers give you six weeks” will miss the notices that do not. A team that plans around “the Netherlands is a long-window market” and ignores the short tail will do the same.
| Market | Share under 21 days | Median window |
|---|---|---|
| Croatia | 51.8% | 20.0 days |
| Europe, 28 markets | 22.3% | 31.0 days |
| Netherlands | 16.4% | 46.1 days |
| France | 11.2% | 32.1 days |
| Luxembourg | 8.2% | 33.1 days |
Read the notice first. Then place it against both numbers for that country: how common a window under 21 days is, and how long the typical window runs.
The legal minimum depends on the procedure
In an EU open procedure, the standard minimum is 35 days from dispatch of the notice. Electronic submission can bring that to 30 days. Some procedures can use 15 days where the legal conditions are met, including where a prior information notice was published in time. Those floors are in Directive 2014/24/EU. A prior information notice is one of the routes to a shorter period.
The maps count calendar days printed on the notice, from publication to the deadline. They do not sort notices by procedure, so a bar under 21 days is not a finding that the deadline broke the rule.
Procedure type, CPV sector, and the buyer’s own rules sit outside this count.
The practical follow-on is how long you actually get to bid in Europe. The seasonal pattern of when those notices appear is in how to time a European bid calendar.
Sources
- TED competition notices with a measurable response window, 14 July 2025 to 14 July 2026. 165,102 notices across 28 markets. Calendar days between publication and deadline, unadjusted for procedure type or sector.
- Directive 2014/24/EU, for the open-procedure minimum of 35 days, the electronic-submission reduction to 30, and the shorter periods where the legal conditions are met. This count does not apply those limits to individual notices.
