Technical Assistance to Ministry of Economy for private sector development

Restricted procurement by the European Union, represented by the European Commission on behalf of North Macedonia, for fee-based technical assistance to strengthen private sector competitiveness, catering sector regulatory reform, circular economy adoption and CBAM compliance, with an estimated contract value of €3.5 million and maximum duration of 36 months. The procedure is restricted (shortlisting 4–8 candidates) and requests to participate must be submitted electronically via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal by 13 November 2026 at 16:00 Europe/Skopje. Selection requires demonstrable economic, professional and technical capacity, including an average annual turnover of at least €2.3 million and technical references of at least three completed contracts each of at least €1.5 million covering private sector policy/capacity building, CBAM and circular economy domains. The contract will be awarded on the best price-quality ratio with a strong quality weighting.

What it funds

Scope (summary)

Fee-based service contract to provide technical assistance to national public and private stakeholders in North Macedonia to: (1) strengthen private sector competitiveness for the EU market and improve the business ecosystem; (2) harmonise and streamline regulatory and institutional framework for the catering sector; (3) design and implement circular economy models in private companies; (4) support company compliance with the CBAM Regulation and reduce CO2 in industrial facilities and products.

Who can apply

Open to natural persons and legal entities established in EU Member States or eligible countries under IPA III, and to international or regional organisations. Candidates may participate individually or in consortia; sub-contracting is allowed. Short-listing will invite between 4 and 8 candidates to submit full tenders.

Key selection highlights

Selection requires demonstrable financial, professional and technical capacity, including an average annual turnover threshold and proven experience in capacity building, CBAM assistance and circular economy work (see procurement documents for full criteria) 1.

Procurement documents and the invitation to submit a request to participate are available on the portal. Submit requests and any questions through the Funding & Tenders Portal Tender notice. 1

Footnotes

1. 1Full procurement specifications, selection and award criteria, and submission instructions are in the Additional information to CN (Invitation to submit a request to participate) available via the tender page above.

Opportunity summary

This is a restricted tender issued by the European Union, represented by the European Commission on behalf of and for the account of North Macedonia, under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA III). The contract is for fee-based technical assistance services to national public and private stakeholders to support private sector development, catering sector regulatory alignment, circular economy adoption in private companies, and compliance with the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and CO2 reduction objectives aligned with the Paris Declaration and the European Green Deal.

Objectives and scope of work

The technical assistance contract covers four complementary pillars of work to strengthen private sector competitiveness and sustainability:

Who can apply and participation rules

Participation is open to natural persons who are nationals of, and legal persons effectively established in, EU Member States or in eligible IPA III countries as defined in Article 11 of Regulation (EU) No 2021/1529. Participation is also open to international and regional organisations. Sub-contracting is allowed. Candidates may participate individually or in consortia (permanent grouping or ad hoc grouping for the procedure). Each natural or legal person can submit only one request to participate or tender (per lot).

Eligibility and selection criteria (detailed)

Selection criteria are applied to candidates (or consortium as a whole). Candidates may rely on capacity-providing entities but must provide commitments and appropriate documentary evidence. The selection criteria are economic/financial capacity, professional capacity and technical capacity as set out below.

If more than 8 eligible candidates meet the selection criteria, re-examination ranking criteria will be applied: 1) highest number of qualifying contracts meeting the technical capacity criterion; 2) highest cumulative value of such contracts (used only to break ties for the last places).

Award criteria and contracting

Application process, deadlines and required documents

Requests to participate must be submitted exclusively via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal (F&T Portal). A Participant Identification Code (PIC) is mandatory for each organisation. The request to participate must use the official request to participate form and include a Declaration on Honour on Exclusion and Selection criteria (templates available via the Annexes link on the F&T Portal). Additional supporting documents must be uploaded under the appropriate attachment sections.

Submission format, administrative details and technical constraints

Consortium, subcontracting and liability

Consortia are allowed and may be permanent or ad hoc. All partners in a consortium are jointly and severally liable to the contracting authority. If relying on capacity-providing entities, supporting declarations and evidence of resource availability must be provided. Short-listed candidates must not alter the composition of the consortium without prior approval; short-list alliances among shortlisted candidates are prohibited.

Evaluation stages and competition

Templates and forms required

Requests to participate must use the official request to participate form available from the Annexes section of the F&T Portal. The Declaration on Honour on Exclusion and Selection criteria template must be used. Candidates must provide mandatory financial data in EUR (converted using InforEuro if original amounts are in other currencies) and documentary evidence for technical references (reports, payments, certificates, consortium agreements showing the candidate's part). Additional documents beyond what is expressly requested will not be considered.

Selection and technical evidence details

For technical capacity, each referenced contract must be evidenced by documentary proof (approval of report or deliverable, proof of payment, statement or certificate from the contracting entity). If contracts were implemented in consortia, the portion executed by the candidate must be clearly documented (consortium agreement, bank transfers, description of services provided). The period of reference for technical and professional capacity is the last 3 years for professional capacity and last 4 years for technical references.

Other important procurement metadata

Eligible applicant types

Categorisation answers (extracted and interpreted)

Key documentation available on the F&T Portal includes the Invitation to submit a request to participate (Additional information to CN (1) published 12/10/2026) and procurement documents accessible after selecting an organisation in the portal. The Additional information to CN contains full selection and award criteria, templates references, submission instructions and clarifications on eligibility and evidence requirements. Call details and documents Additional information to CN (1) 1

Summary and recommended next steps

This restricted tender is a procurement for technical assistance services to strengthen private sector competitiveness and sustainability in North Macedonia under the IPA III Annual Action Plan. The contracting authority will shortlist qualified candidates (4 to 8) based on strict financial, professional and technical selection criteria, then invite them to tender. Applicants should verify eligibility, assemble required financial statements, documentary evidence of three qualifying contracts (each >= €1.5 million) covering the specified domains, CVs of key personnel (minimum staffing levels), and any consortium or capacity provider commitments. All submissions must be made electronically through the F&T Portal by 13 November 2026, 16:00 Europe/Skopje. Follow the official request to participate form and Declaration on Honour templates, check the eSubmission system requirements for file naming and formats, and use the Questions & Answers facility on the portal for clarifications before the 21-day cut-off for questions.

Footnotes

1. 1Full procurement documentation, templates and the Invitation to submit a request to participate are available on the Funding & Tenders Portal at the call details page: ec.europa.eu and the PDF Additional information to CN (1): ec.europa.eu

Opportunity overview

This is a fee based EU services procurement contract, not a grant scheme. The contracting authority will purchase technical assistance for national public and private stakeholders in North Macedonia. The contract is financed under the Instrument for Pre accession Assistance III, through the EUIF Annual Action Plan in favour of North Macedonia for 2024 and 2025, Thematic Priority 2: Private sector development, trade, research and innovation 1.

The procurement uses a restricted procedure. Organisations first submit a request to participate. Between 4 and 8 eligible candidates are expected to be shortlisted and invited to submit a detailed tender. The final contract will be awarded using the best price quality ratio.

The opportunity is most suitable for established consulting firms, development contractors, specialist advisory organisations, international or regional organisations, and consortia with demonstrated experience in private sector policy, EU regulatory approximation, CBAM, circular economy and industrial decarbonisation.

Key opportunity data

Scope and objectives

The assignment has four connected workstreams intended to strengthen North Macedonia's private sector and support alignment with EU policy and regulatory requirements.

Private sector competitiveness and business ecosystem

The contractor will support measures that enable private companies to compete more effectively in the EU market. Expected areas include reviewing and optimising legal and administrative procedures, reducing the cost and complexity of doing business, establishing infrastructure for angel investors and venture investors, and promoting corporate social responsibility practices within companies.

Catering sector regulatory reform

The assignment will support improvement of the regulatory and institutional framework for the catering sector. Activities are expected to include harmonisation of laws and secondary legislation with the EU acquis and good practice, clarification of institutional responsibilities, streamlining of inspection procedures and updating of classification systems.

Circular economy models

The contractor will support private companies in designing and implementing circular economy models. This may involve resource efficiency, waste prevention, reuse, recycling, industrial symbiosis, circular business models, measurement systems and integration of circular economy principles into company operations and public policy.

CBAM compliance and industrial decarbonisation

The assignment will help private companies understand and comply with the requirements of the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. It will also support reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from industrial facilities and industrial products in line with the Paris Declaration and the objectives of the European Green Deal.

Who can apply

Participation is open to natural persons who are nationals of, and legal persons effectively established in, an EU Member State or a country or territory eligible under Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1529 establishing IPA III. International and regional organisations may also participate.

Applicants may participate individually or as a consortium. A consortium may be a permanent legally established grouping or an informal grouping formed for this procurement. The consortium leader and all other partners will be jointly and severally liable to the contracting authority.

North Macedonian entities may participate only if they satisfy the applicable IPA III nationality and establishment rules and all other procurement requirements. Local expertise is likely to be valuable for implementation, but local presence alone does not replace the formal eligibility requirements.

Subcontracting is allowed. An applicant may also rely on the capacities of other entities, provided it proves that the necessary resources will be available for contract performance. Capacity providing entities must meet the relevant eligibility and selection requirements.

Mandatory eligibility and participation conditions

Applicants must submit the prescribed request to participate form and the required declarations. The format and instructions must be followed strictly. Additional unsolicited material such as brochures or general letters will not be taken into consideration at the participation stage.

A signed declaration on honour covering exclusion and selection criteria is required. The applicant and any relevant capacity providing entity or subcontractor must not be in the exclusion situations listed in the applicable Practical Guide provisions. Entities subject to EU restrictive measures at the time of the award decision cannot be awarded the contract.

An organisation may submit no more than one request to participate, whether as an individual applicant, consortium leader or consortium member. If an organisation participates in more than one request, all requests in which it participates may be excluded.

The composition of a shortlisted consortium must remain stable for the tender stage. Shortlisted candidates may not form alliances with one another or subcontract to one another for this contract unless the contracting authority gives prior approval under the applicable procurement rules.

Selection criteria

The three required technical domains must all be covered, but one contract may cover more than one domain. References may have started earlier or remain ongoing, provided that the relevant part was implemented within the stated reference period and can be evidenced.

Where a reference was delivered through a consortium, the applicant must clearly demonstrate the part of the work it completed and the value attributable to that work. Consortium agreements, payment records, acceptance documents and descriptions of delivered services may be needed to substantiate the claim.

Previous experience that resulted in a breach of contract and termination by a contracting authority cannot be used as a selection reference.

Shortlisting process

Between 4 and 8 candidates will normally be invited to submit detailed tenders. If fewer than 4 candidates meet the requirements, the contracting authority may invite all eligible candidates that satisfy the selection criteria.

If more than 8 candidates meet the selection criteria, the contracting authority will rank them using additional comparative criteria. The first criterion is the highest number of qualifying contracts. If candidates remain tied for the eighth position, the second criterion is the highest cumulative value of qualifying completed services.

Award stage

The contract will be awarded on the basis of the best price quality ratio. The procurement data indicates an indicative weighting of 80 percent for quality and 20 percent for price. Applicants should nevertheless rely on the detailed invitation to tender and tender documents for the definitive scoring methodology and subcriteria.

The strong quality weighting means that shortlisted tenderers should expect substantial emphasis on methodology, technical approach, staffing, understanding of North Macedonia's institutional context, risk management, deliverables, stakeholder engagement and the credibility of the proposed experts. Price competitiveness remains relevant but is not expected to compensate for a weak technical proposal.

Funding and contract economics

The estimated total contract value is €3.5 million for the full 36 month service contract. This is the estimated procurement budget and not an award amount automatically payable to each applicant. Only the successful contractor will receive payments under the signed contract.

The contract is fee based. The procurement information does not specify a grant co financing rate, beneficiary contribution, fixed grant amount or reimbursement percentage. Applicants should therefore price the services, personnel, travel, operational inputs, subcontracting and other eligible contract costs in accordance with the future tender documents rather than apply grant funding rules.

Financial information submitted during the procedure must be expressed in euros. Where historical amounts are originally stated in another currency, the procurement notice specifies use of the applicable InforEuro exchange rate for November 2026.

Implementation and delivery considerations

The assignment combines regulatory reform, institutional strengthening, business support and climate related technical assistance. A credible delivery model will likely require a multidisciplinary team covering EU approximation, regulatory governance, business environment reform, catering and tourism related regulation, investment ecosystem development, corporate social responsibility, circular economy, industrial emissions, carbon accounting and CBAM compliance.

The contractor will need to work with relevant public authorities and private sector stakeholders. Effective stakeholder management, clear institutional mandates, practical company level support and mechanisms for measuring results will be important to successful implementation.

The CBAM workstream creates a need for expertise in emissions data, monitoring, reporting and verification, product level carbon intensity, industrial processes, export supply chains and interaction with EU import requirements. The circular economy workstream creates a related need for practical company diagnostics and implementable business models rather than policy analysis alone.

The catering sector component indicates that the assignment is not limited to industrial or climate policy. Applicants should ensure that their proposed consortium or subcontracting structure also covers regulatory and institutional reform in services and hospitality related sectors.

Application process

Applicants must register in the European Commission Participant Register and obtain a 9 digit Participant Identification Code. Consortium submissions require registration for each consortium member and must be submitted as a group submission.

Requests to participate must be submitted exclusively through the electronic submission function of the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. Email, post or other submission methods will be disregarded. An EU Login account is required for electronic submission, questions and access to relevant portal functions.

The participation submission should include the request to participate form under Other documents, the declaration required under the request to participate form under Other documents, and the declaration on honour on exclusion and selection criteria under Declaration on Honour.

A submission receipt generated by the electronic system, showing the official date and time of receipt, is the evidence of timely submission. Applicants should submit early enough to address technical issues and should retain the receipt and final submission record.

The official deadline is 13 November 2026 at 16:00 Europe/Skopje. The portal data also contains an opening or metadata date of 1 January 2026, but the operative deadline for requests to participate is the deadline stated in the contract notice and additional information document.

Clarifications and communications

Questions concerning the contract notice or the additional information document must be submitted in writing through the Questions and Answers function of the Funding and Tenders Portal. Clarification requests should be submitted no later than 21 days before the participation deadline. Published clarifications are expected no later than 8 days before the deadline.

Applicants are responsible for checking the portal regularly for amendments, clarifications and updated procurement documents. All written communications for the procedure and contract must be in English.

Recommended applicant strategy

Key risks and points requiring attention

The opportunity is highly selective because only 4 to 8 candidates are expected to proceed to the tender stage. Meeting the minimum criteria does not guarantee shortlisting where more than 8 candidates qualify.

The technical reference requirement is demanding because qualifying experience must collectively cover private sector policy capacity building, CBAM and circular economy, with each qualifying contract valued at at least €1.5 million. General business consulting experience without these domains may not be sufficient.

Consortium members are jointly and severally liable. Applicants should therefore conduct financial, legal and delivery due diligence on all partners and document the allocation of responsibilities clearly.

Reliance on another entity's capacity is subject to conditions. For technical and professional capacity, the entity whose capacity is relied upon must perform the tasks for which that capacity is required. For economic and financial capacity, the capacity providing entity becomes jointly and severally liable for contract performance.

The detailed tender documents may contain further requirements on experts, deliverables, methodology, budget structure, contract conditions, guarantees, reporting, payment arrangements and evaluation subcriteria. These matters should be checked as soon as the invitation to tender is issued.

Official sources

The official opportunity record is available in the EU Funding and Tenders Portal EU Funding and Tenders Portal. The additional information document is available through the documents section of that record Additional information about the Contract Notice.

Overall assessment

This is a substantial, strategically important IPA III technical assistance procurement focused on North Macedonia's private sector competitiveness, regulatory approximation, catering sector governance, circular economy transition and CBAM readiness. It is not appropriate for early stage companies or applicants seeking direct financial support. It is best suited to an experienced lead contractor or consortium able to demonstrate the required financial capacity, personnel base and high value references across all three mandatory technical domains.

The strongest applicants will combine proven EU funded technical assistance delivery with practical implementation capability at both government and company level. Early preparation of reference evidence, consortium arrangements, PIC registration and a multidisciplinary expert structure will be essential to a credible request to participate.

Footnotes

1. 1The official Funding and Tenders Portal record and the published additional information about the contract notice are the controlling sources for eligibility, selection, submission and contract conditions. Applicants should verify any subsequent amendment, clarification or replacement document in the portal before submitting.