EU Thresholds

The European Commission has confirmed the new financial thresholds to be applied to public procurement.

The new thresholds will apply from 1st January 2018 and be in place until the end of 2019.

When procuring goods or services over the financial threshold a public authority must do so under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.

These regulations transposed the European public contracts directive (2014/24/EU) into national law.

Buying organisations must advertise any requirement over the new thresholds in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), rather than just advertising it nationally. The calculation of the estimated value of a procurement shall be based on the total amount payable, net of VAT, as estimated by the contracting authority, including any form of option and any renewals of the contracts as explicitly set out in the procurement documents.

Between the 2016/2017 thresholds and the 2017/2018 thresholds we have seen a small increase in the thresholds in both Pounds Sterling and Euros. Due to the relatively small increase it is unlikely that buyers or suppliers will notice much change in the size of contracts advertised at European level. For more information visit the help and resources page on Sell2Wales – Sell2Wales EU Thresholds