Tenders in Finland and Sweden: finding them through TED

The Finnish and Swedish public markets are several times larger than Estonia's and easy for a Baltic company to reach. The main source is TED, the EU's Official Journal. Here is how to find the right tenders and what to check before you bid.

Updated 11 November 2026 · 7 min read

What TED is

TED (Tenders Electronic Daily, ted.europa.eu) is the online supplement to the Official Journal of the EU. It publishes tenders from all member states above the EU thresholds, plus some smaller ones. It is free, and notices can be searched by country, CPV code and date. Notices are in the buyer's language, usually Finnish or Swedish in Finland and Swedish in Sweden, with a machine translation alongside. Read the original documents before writing a bid.

How many tenders

The Hangete database currently holds 894 open Swedish and 440 open Finnish tenders from TED, compared with 423 in Estonia. See the live lists on Public tenders in Finland and Public tenders in Sweden. For 2026–2027 the EU thresholds are €5,404,000 for works, and €140,000 (central government) or €216,000 (other buyers) for supplies and services.

Finland

Hilma (hankintailmoitukset.fi) is the national notice portal; EU-level notices are forwarded from it to TED. Tenders above the national but below the EU threshold are only in Hilma.
Bids are often submitted in a separate system such as Cloudia or Tarjouspalvelu.fi; the link is in the notice.
In construction and many services buyers ask for documents under the Contractor's Liability Act (tilaajavastuulaki): proof of registration, taxes and pension insurance. Foreign companies provide their home-country equivalents.
Finland shares Estonia's time zone.

Sweden

There is no single national register. Tenders are published in registered notice databases such as e-Avrop, Mercell TendSign and Kommers Annons; larger ones also go to TED.
Framework agreements (ramavtal) and dynamic purchasing systems (dynamiskt inköpssystem), which you can join while the system runs, are very common.
Values are usually in kronor; Hangete shows an approximate euro value.
Sweden is one hour behind Estonia: a 10:00 deadline in Stockholm is 11:00 in Tallinn.

Language and documents

The notice states which languages bids may be in: usually Finnish or Swedish in Finland, Swedish in Sweden, sometimes English, especially in IT and research. Factor translation time and cost into the decision. In EU procedures selection is often declared with the ESPD; certificates such as a registry extract and proof of no tax arrears are provided later or by the winner. If you send staff to deliver the contract, posting of workers rules apply: notify the local authority in advance and meet local minimum terms.

Practical steps

Start with your strongest field and one country, and read a few recent tender documents to learn the usual requirements.
Check who won similar contracts; award notices in TED show price levels and competitors.
Consider a local partner or subcontractor where local presence, language or service is required.
Ask the buyer questions early; clarifications are shared with all bidders and prevent misread requirements.

How not to miss them

Watching Finland and Sweden by hand means searching TED in several languages every day. Hangete does it for you: choose your industry and countries, and every working day at 7:00 you get one email with matching tenders from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, with value in euros, deadline and a link to the notice.