Multiple framework contracts in cascade for legal support services for the compliance assessment of national transposing measures in the health and food safety areas, in the context of the enlargement

The Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA) has launched a call for tenders identified as HADEA/2025/OP/0012 aimed at establishing multiple framework contracts for legal support services. This tender focuses on compliance assessments of national laws related to health and food safety that align with EU legislation, particularly during the EU enlargement process.

Eligible applicants include all natural and legal persons within the scope of EU treaties, as well as international organizations. The total estimated value for the contracts is €5,670,000, and the maximum duration is four years. This is a procurement contract classified as an open call for tenders, requiring electronic submissions.

The evaluation criteria prioritize quality over cost, with a 60% weight on technical aspects and 40% on financial considerations. While a consortium requirement is not explicitly stated, both individual applicants and group submissions are permitted.

The initiative targets EU candidate countries, likely including nations in the Western Balkans, as part of their goal to harmonize local regulations with EU standards. The project involves ongoing service provision rather than one-off tasks, focusing on the implementation of legal frameworks.

Key deadlines include a final submission date of June 3, 2025, following previous extensions, and a public opening of tenders on June 4, 2025. The tender documents include various specifications and forms, with a comprehensive Q&A section available for clarifications. Tenderers must register for a Participant Identification Code (PIC), with strict guidelines for the format and size of submitted documents.

Overall, this tender aims to attract experienced legal experts to ensure candidate countries can effectively align their public health and food safety legislation with EU directives, facilitating smoother accession processes.

The Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA) has published a call for tenders HADEA/2025/OP/0012 for multiple framework contracts in cascade for legal support services. The services will focus on compliance assessment of national transposing measures in the health and food safety areas, within the context of EU enlargement.

The procedure type is open, and submissions must be electronic. The estimated total value of the tender is 5,670,000 EUR. The maximum contract duration is 48 months. The award method will be based on the best price-quality ratio, using a framework agreement without reopening competition.

Selection criteria include: Suitability to pursue the professional activity, economic and financial standing, and technical and professional ability. Detailed information on these criteria can be found in the procurement documents.

Key milestones include:
TED publication date: 26/03/2025
Date and time of public opening: 04/06/2025 14:00 Europe/Brussels time
Deadline for receipt of tenders: 03/06/2025 16:00 Europe/Brussels time
Contracting authority is not bound to reply to questions submitted after: 26/05/2025 05:00 Europe/Brussels time

The deadline for submissions has been extended twice. First, by two weeks, setting the new deadline to 26/05/2025 at 16:00 CET. Then, by eight days, setting the final deadline to 03/06/2025 at 16:00 CET.

The TED reference numbers associated with this call for tenders are 60/2025 194182-2025, 80/2025 264103-2025, and 98/2025 00331927-2025.

The following documents are available for download:
1. HADEA 2025 OP 0012 Invitation to tender (request for offer)
2. HADEA 2025 OP 0012 Draft framework contract
3. HADEA 2025 OP 0012 Appendix 1 Security requirements 2025
4. HADEA 2025 OP 0012 Tender specifications
5. HADEA 2025 OP 0012 Administrative annexes
6. HADEA 2025 OP 0012 Declaration on honour
7. HADEA 2025 OP 0012 Financial offer form

Several questions and answers have been published to clarify aspects of the tender. Some key clarifications include:
Evidence of technical and professional capacity must be provided with the tender.
The financial offer form refers to tables included in EU legal acts, not tables of concordance.
The required profiles in the Tender Specification are considered a minimum.
The contracting authority does not consider meetings and/or clarifications during implementation to be necessary.
The Tender Specifications specify the education degrees required for Profiles 1, 2, 3 and 4, but not for the expert witness.
The contracting authority has extended the submission deadline until 03/06/2025.
An extension of the deadline for submission was initially not foreseen.
It is possible to have a minimum of two legal experts for each third country whose law degree is issued or recognised by an EU Member State.
The fields mentioned in the Excel template may be used (or not) by the potential tenderers to give an internal name/reference to the various items.
The contractor will obtain further clarifications/necessary details within the request for specific contract.
The price in Part II (cell I23) of the financial offer form should be considered as the sum of the average prices per page, for all countries, per type of EU act multiplied by the estimated number of pages.
The Tender Specifications requirements remain unchanged regarding the university degree of at least 3 years in law, including courses in EU law, for each proposed legal expert.
It is highly recommended that the tenderer limits the technical tender to a maximum of 60 pages, excluding the case study.
For criterion T3 profile 2, at least 5 years of post-graduate legal experience in the field of EU public health law is required.
Different CVs are required for different profiles.
The contracting authority has extended the submission deadline by two weeks until 26.5.
The Contracting Authority cannot reply in advance regarding the recognition of University degrees obtained in the member countries of the European Higher Education Area.
University diplomas in (a) Epidemiology, (b) Health Sciences, (c) Nutrition, (d) Occupational Health and Safety, (e) Public Administration (with an emphasis on health policy), (f) Social Sciences are considered for P3 requirements.
For individual experts (staff not employed by the tenderer) for any of the profiles under T3, tenderers only need to provide a signed commitment letter and signed selection grid from Annex 9.
Participation in this call for tenders is open on equal terms to all natural and legal persons coming within the scope of the Treaties, as well as to international organisations.
Annex 8 Project reference needs to be signed by the group leader or sole tenderer.
It is sufficient to have at least two legal experts per third country listed in Section 1.4.3.1.
The access to this call is based on the respect of the principles of public procurement, such as equal treatment and non-discrimination.
Word versions of Annex 3, Annex 4, and Annex 5 can be found as administrative annexes on the HADEA/2025/OP/0012 page on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.
Profile requirements need to be met for each expert.
Veterinary medicine degrees may fall under the umbrella of public health degrees in the context of this call for tenders.
Field missions will not be requested under this Framework Contract nor under its Specific Contracts.
Law degrees obtained from non-EU Member States would need to be recognized in an EU Member State.
The technical offer does not need to report the actual assessment of the case study nor provide any concrete results that would be stemming from it.
For each profile requested, both the CV and the selection grid must be submitted.
CVs must be provided for all 27 required profiles.

The eSubmission system supports the latest versions of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Attachments should be less than 50 MB in size. The maximum number of documents that can be uploaded per tender is 200 files. A Personal Identification Code (PIC) is mandatory to participate in this call for tenders. The system is multilingual and supports all 24 official EU languages. The character set encoding is UTF-8. The system encrypts all uploaded documents. Submissions in draft status can be edited, viewed, and deleted until the deadline.

In summary, this is a call for tenders issued by the Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA) for establishing framework contracts to provide legal support services. These services will focus on assessing how well national laws in countries seeking to join the EU are aligned with EU laws, specifically in the areas of health and food safety. The call is open to any eligible organization with the necessary expertise, and the selection will be based on a combination of price and quality. The deadline for submitting tenders is June 3, 2025. The tenderers must submit their offers electronically and comply with specific requirements regarding the format and content of their submissions. The contracting authority has provided detailed specifications and answered numerous questions to ensure clarity and transparency throughout the tendering process.

Eligible Applicant Types: Participation in this call for tenders is open on equal terms to all natural and legal persons coming within the scope of the Treaties, as well as to international organisations.

Funding Type: Procurement, specifically a framework agreement for services.

Consortium Requirement: Both single applicants and consortia (groups of tenderers) are eligible.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): Participation is open to all natural and legal persons within the scope of the Treaties. This generally implies that the opportunity is primarily targeted towards entities located within the EU member states. International organisations are also eligible.

Target Sector: The primary target sector is legal support services, specifically in the areas of health and food safety. The call focuses on compliance assessment of national transposing measures, which relates to the implementation of EU directives and regulations at the national level. Additional target sectors include: Health, Agriculture/Food, Innovation, Consulting.

Mentioned Countries: No specific countries are mentioned, but the context refers to EU member states and third countries in the context of enlargement.

Project Stage: The project stage is implementation and service provision, as the tender seeks contractors to provide legal support services on an ongoing basis under a framework contract.

Funding Amount: The estimated total value of the procurement is 5,670,000 EUR.

Application Type: Open call for tenders.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive service contracts.

Application Stages: The number of stages is not explicitly stated, but it involves at least one stage of submitting a tender, evaluation of the tender, and award of the framework contract.

Success Rates: Success rates are not mentioned.

Co-funding Requirement: Co-funding is not mentioned.

Summary:

This is a call for tenders, HADEA/2025/OP/0012, published by the Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). The purpose of this tender is to establish multiple framework contracts in cascade for the provision of legal support services. These services will focus on the compliance assessment of national measures that transpose EU law, specifically in the areas of health and food safety. This is within the context of the EU enlargement process, meaning the legal support will likely be needed to assist candidate countries in aligning their national laws with EU regulations.

The estimated total value of the framework contracts is 5,670,000 EUR, and the maximum duration of the contracts is 48 months. The award method will be based on the best price-quality ratio. The procedure type is an open procedure, meaning any eligible entity can submit a tender.

Eligible applicants include all natural and legal persons within the scope of the EU treaties, as well as international organizations. Submissions must be sent electronically. The original deadline for receipt of tenders was extended twice, and the final deadline is June 3, 2025, at 16:00 CET.

The tender documents include an invitation to tender, a draft framework contract, appendices related to security requirements, tender specifications, administrative annexes, a declaration on honour, and a financial offer form.

The website also provides a Q&A section where potential tenderers can ask questions and receive clarifications from the contracting authority. The contracting authority is not bound to reply to questions submitted after May 26, 2025, at 05:00 Europe/Brussels time.

To participate, tenderers must register for a Participant Identification Code (PIC). The eSubmission system supports all 24 official EU languages and uses encryption to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of information. Attachments to the tender submission must be less than 50 MB in size, and the maximum number of documents that can be uploaded per tender is 200 files.