How to bid in Romanian public tenders: a practical guide for foreign companies

011. The market: where the money is in 2026–2028

Every Romanian public procedure is published and run in SEAP, the national e-procurement system at e-licitatie.ro. Procedures above the EU thresholds are also published in the EU's Tenders Electronic Daily (TED), which is where many foreign companies first see them — but the bid is always submitted in SEAP.

The national recovery plan (PNRR) passed its implementation deadline on 31 August 2026. New contracting is shifting to other sources, while PNRR contracts already signed move into execution, valuation and final settlement.

Large contracts frequently go to international contractors, often in consortium with Romanian firms. For mid-size foreign companies, most of the value lies in supply packages, specialist works and subcontracts — and in the many mid-size procedures that attract few bidders. In 2024, 44% of Romanian procedures received a single bid (EU average: 28%) and 82% were awarded on price alone (EU average: 54%), according to the European Commission's Single Market Scoreboard.

Every figure on this page is sourced; we do not publish market-size estimates we cannot source.

How we help continuous SEAP and TED monitoring against your CPV codes, capacity and target regions, with a weekly shortlist and a monthly pipeline report. → Romania Tender Office

CChheecckk eelliiggiibbiilliittyy

022. The legal framework

Romanian procurement law transposes the EU directives. The acts you will meet:

• Law 98/2016 — public procurement by classic contracting authorities (ministries, counties, municipalities, public institutions)
• Law 99/2016 — sectoral procurement by utilities (energy, water, transport, postal services)
• Law 100/2016 — works and services concessions
• Law 101/2016 — remedies, and the National Council for Solving Complaints (CNSC)
• GD 395/2016 and GD 394/2016 — implementing rules for Law 98/2016 and Law 99/2016

The institutions: ANAP, the National Agency for Public Procurement (regulator, ex-ante checks); the CNSC (complaints during the procedure); the Authority for the Digitalisation of Romania, which operates SEAP; managing authorities and audit bodies, which check EU-funded procedures, sometimes years after signature.

Procedure types: open, restricted, competitive negotiation, competitive dialogue, innovation partnership, negotiated without prior publication, design contest, social and other specific services, simplified procedure (below EU thresholds) and direct award (small values). Award criteria: lowest price, lowest cost, best price-quality ratio, best cost-effectiveness.

Three rules about value matter for your bid: the estimated value always excludes VAT and includes options and extensions; for a framework agreement it is the maximum value of all subsequent contracts over the whole term; and when a procedure is split into lots, the total of all lots decides which rules apply.

How we help the Go/No-Go review reads the data sheet, the specifications, the draft contract and the award criteria, and tells you which rules apply. → Go/No-Go review

033. Registering a foreign company in SEAP

To submit a bid, your company needs an economic-operator account in SEAP.

1. Decide who will sign — your legal representative, or a person holding your company's power of attorney.
2. Obtain a qualified electronic signature for that person (section 4).
3. Submit the registration request in the platform, with your company details and the documents it asks for, signed electronically.
4. Wait for validation by the platform operator. Allow several working days, and never start registration in the week of a deadline.
5. Add users and roles — for example your bid manager and, if you choose, members of our team acting under your power of attorney.
6. Test everything before the first live deadline: sign and upload a test document, open the ESPD utility, and check that your signature validates.

Keep the account alive: certificates expire, and registration data must be updated when your representatives or company details change.

How we help we prepare the registration file, arrange qualified e-signatures for your signatories, run the test with you and — if you wish — operate the account under a power of attorney that you control and can revoke at any time. → SEAP registration

CChheecckk eelliiggiibbiilliittyy

044. The qualified electronic signature (eIDAS)

Documents uploaded to SEAP are signed with a qualified electronic signature (QES) under the eIDAS Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2024/1183).

• EU signatures. A QES issued by a qualified trust service provider in any EU Member State has the legal effect of a handwritten signature throughout the EU. Test that the platform validates your certificate before you depend on it.
• Non-EU signatures. Signatures issued outside the EU are generally not qualified under eIDAS.
• Cloud signatures (remote QES) work well for international teams: no card reader, signing from anywhere.
• Every entity signs its own documents — each consortium member, supporting third party and subcontractor signs its own ESPD and undertakings.
• Authority to sign. The signatory must be your legal representative or hold a power of attorney; a foreign power of attorney may need translation and an apostille.

How we help signature set-up for every signatory, a signature-flow plan per bid (who signs what, when, in which time zone) and a test submission. → Qualified e-signature

055. The ESPD (DUAE)

The European Single Procurement Document — in Romania, the DUAE — is your self-declaration that you are not excluded and that you meet the selection criteria. It is completed in Romanian, in the platform's format, and submitted with the bid.

• Who submits one: you; each consortium member; each third party whose capacity you rely on; and subcontractors where the data sheet requires it.
• Consistency is everything. Each statement must match your evidence and your technical and financial proposals. Contradictions are one of the most frequent causes of rejection.
• Evidence comes later — but fast. Authorities usually ask the best-ranked bidder for supporting documents before the award, within a short deadline. Prepare the evidence before you submit.
• Typical errors: turnover for the wrong years; experience values not converted as the data sheet requires; a missing ESPD for a subcontractor or supporting third party; “yes” ticked without matching evidence; company names and identifiers written differently across documents.

How we help we complete the ESPD and check it, criterion by criterion, against the data sheet and every document in your file. → Qualification file and ESPD

066. Foreign documents and equivalence

Romanian authorities must accept equivalent documents issued in your country of establishment. The European Commission's e-Certis database helps map Romanian certificates to their equivalents.

Documents most often requested: trade-register extract; tax and social-security clearance; criminal records for the company and its representatives; insolvency certificate; financial statements; evidence of similar experience (contracts, references, completion certificates); ISO certificates; key personnel (CVs, diplomas, attestations); equipment (ownership or lease, data sheets).

• Values in foreign currency are converted at the rate the data sheet specifies, often the BNR annual average for each year.
• Romanian professional attestations — some roles are regulated, for example the site technical manager in construction (responsabil tehnic cu execuția) or installers attested by the energy regulator ANRE.
• Freshness — many certificates must be valid on the date they are submitted or requested.

How we help an equivalence map for your country and a document vault, so that nothing is requested twice. → Document vault

077. Sworn translation, apostille and legalisation

• Translation. Documents not in Romanian are submitted with a translation by a translator authorised by the Romanian Ministry of Justice; some authorities also require the translator's signature to be legalised by a notary.
• Apostille. Public documents from countries party to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention usually carry an apostille issued in the country of origin; documents from other countries usually need consular legalisation.
• Read the data sheet. Some authorities ask for certified translations with the bid, others only before the award.

Translation is rarely the main cost; time is. Originals, apostille, courier, translation and legalisation have to be planned backwards from the deadline.

How we help one tracker for every translation, apostille and legalisation, with name, identifier and date checks across the whole file. → Guarantees, certified documents and specialists

088. The language rule

The procedure is conducted in Romanian: the bid, the ESPD, forms, clarifications, complaints and the contract. Some authorities accept technical data sheets or catalogues in English — but only when the data sheet says so.

Our model avoids paying twice for translation: we draft the qualification file and the technical and financial proposals directly in Romanian and give you English working versions to approve. Communication with the authority goes through the platform, in Romanian; you receive an English summary of every message the same day. → Complete tender file

099. Deadlines and time zones

• Bucharest time. Deadlines are in Romanian time (EET, UTC+2; EEST, UTC+3 in summer), and the platform closes at the minute.
• Clarification questions must be sent early: late questions may not be answered before the deadline.
• After submission, the authority's requests for clarification come with short deadlines, often a few working days.
• Bid validity is set in the data sheet, commonly several months; the authority may ask you to extend it.

Our standing rule: a complete bid is uploaded at least 24 hours before the deadline, because platform incidents and last-day signature problems do happen. → Clarifications and submission

1010. Guarantees

• Bid guarantee (garanție de participare): at most 1% of the estimated value; for a framework agreement, at most 1% of the largest subsequent contract. Lodged with the bid, valid for at least the bid validity period.
• Performance guarantee (garanție de bună execuție): at most 10% of the contract price excluding VAT, within 5 working days of signature, extendable to 15 on justified request.
• Advance-payment guarantee: as set in the contract, before the advance is paid.

Accepted forms include bank guarantees from banks in Romania or abroad, insurance guarantees from insurers authorised in the EU or registered with the Romanian Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF), and bank transfer. Letters from non-bank financial institutions are accepted only for works up to RON 40,000,000 and supplies or services up to RON 7,000,000. Wording must follow the model in the award documentation, line by line; a standard bank template is a frequent reason for rejection. Return: the bid guarantee is released within 3 working days after the winner lodges the performance guarantee; for works, 70% of the performance guarantee is released within 14 days of completion acceptance and 30% at the end of the warranty period.

How we help wording checked against the model, an issuance tracker and recovery of guarantees. Bank and insurer fees are third-party costs. → Guarantees, certified documents and specialists

1111. Consortia, third-party support, subcontractors and local partners

• Sole bidder — you meet every criterion yourself. Watch: turnover, experience and personnel thresholds.
• Consortium (JV) — two or more operators bid jointly; one leads. Watch: joint and several liability; an ESPD per member; evidence allocated per member.
• Third-party support — another company lends you its financial, technical or professional capacity. Watch: a firm, signed undertaking; the supporter must not be excluded.
• Subcontractor — part of the work is performed by others under your contract. Watch: declared share; ESPD where required; direct-payment requests.

Romanian partners help where the tender requires Romanian attestations, site presence, Romanian-speaking key staff or a local supply chain. We map candidate partners from public award data and approach them at your request; we do not sell introductions or access, and you choose your partners.

How we help each member covers exactly what it must cover, and the ESPDs, forms and agreements say so consistently. → Consortium and JV structuring

1212. Evaluation, price and the abnormally low price file

Most Romanian tenders are decided on price, so the financial offer carries the weight — and the risk.

• Format. Price forms and priced bills of quantities in the Romanian deviz structure, usually in RON excluding VAT; the currency is set in the data sheet.
• Coherence. Quantities, unit rates, totals, VAT and the resources in your technical proposal must match. Arithmetic errors can be corrected only within narrow limits.
• Abnormally low price. When your price falls below the scrutiny threshold, the authority asks you to justify it under article 210 of Law 98/2016, with independent and verifiable evidence.
• Contract economics. Advance payment, retention, payment terms and price-adjustment clauses change the real value of your price.

How we help cost engineering in the deviz structure, supplier-quote normalisation, cash-flow and price-adjustment modelling, and the justification file. You approve every final price. → Financial proposal and cost engineering

1313. Remedies at the CNSC

• Where. A bidder who considers itself harmed can file a complaint with the CNSC or bring an action before the competent court.
• When. The window starts at publication, not when you read it.
• Offensive or defensive. You can challenge restrictive documentation, clarifications that change the rules or the award decision — and defend your own award when a competitor complains.
• Non-EU bidders. See Eligibility for non-EU bidders.

How we help a prospects memo before anything is filed, deadline control, the evidence file, written submissions and coordination with licensed attorneys. → CNSC remedies

CChheecckk eelliiggiibbiilliittyy

1414. Award and contract signature

• Result. The authority communicates the result to all bidders.
• Supporting documents. If not already submitted, the best-ranked bidder provides the evidence behind its ESPD, within the deadline the authority sets.
• Invitation to sign and signature. The authority invites the winner to sign; the contract is in Romanian and is signed electronically or on paper. The performance guarantee follows within 5 working days of signature (extendable to 15).

How we help an award-readiness checklist, contract review, the performance guarantee and the signing package. → Award, contracting and guarantees

1515. After the award: works valuation and getting paid

Winning is half of the mandate. A works contract pays only when the execution paperwork is right — and it is checked again, years later, by auditors and managing authorities.

• Interim payment statements (situații de lucrări) are prepared monthly on the contract bill of quantities and agreed unit prices, with measurement attachments, then certified by the authority's site supervisor (diriginte de șantier) and the beneficiary before invoicing.
• Price adjustment is calculated on official statistical cost indices, where the contract allows it.
• Acceptance — completion acceptance and final acceptance after the warranty period — releases the retention and the performance guarantee.
• Audit trail: bid price → contracted price → measured quantity → certified statement → invoice.

→ Post-award works valuation

1616. Ten mistakes foreign bidders make

1. Starting SEAP registration and e-signatures in the week of the deadline.
2. Treating the ESPD as a formality and contradicting it elsewhere in the file.
3. Ordering translations and apostilles last.
4. Submitting the bank's standard guarantee wording instead of the authority's model.
5. Relying on experience that cannot be evidenced in the form the data sheet requires.
6. Ignoring Romanian professional attestations required for key personnel.
7. Pricing without the Romanian deviz structure the authority will check.
8. Underestimating the abnormally-low-price justification.
9. Missing the remedy window because the act was published while no one was watching the platform.
10. Assuming eligibility when the company is established outside the EU.

Need this done for you? Get a free Go/No-Go snapshot →

1717. Glossary

This guide is for information only. Quotations from Romanian legislation are unofficial translations. It is not legal advice; for a specific tender, check the official text and the tender documents, or ask us for a review.