Guide · Eligibility & ESPD

The ESPD in public procurement – a bidder's guide to declaring suitability

The European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) is a central part of the bidding process in public procurement. Under section 87 of the Procurement Act, it is a declaration that the bidding company meets the suitability requirements set by the contracting authority and that no mandatory or discretionary ground for exclusion applies to it.

Updated 7 July 2026 · Tendera

The purpose of the document is to lighten bidders' administrative burden. At the bidding stage suitability is shown with the ESPD form, and the actual official certificates are as a rule checked only from the winner of the tender before the procurement contract is signed.

This article covers the structure of the ESPD form and the most important points from a bidder's perspective.

The structure and key parts of the ESPD form

The form consists of several parts; the most significant for a bidder concern the company's background, subcontractors and the suitability requirements.

Part II: Company details, subcontractors and consortia

This part gathers the basic details of the bidding company and any partners. It is important to distinguish two different forms of subcontracting:

Subcontractors whose capacities are relied on: If a bidder uses another company's references or financial resources in order to meet the suitability requirements of the tender documents, that is a subcontractor whose capacities are relied on. In that case the subcontractor must complete its own, separate ESPD form, which is attached to the bid.
Ordinary subcontractors: Subcontractors whose resources are not relied on to meet the suitability requirements are ordinary subcontractors. As a rule they are not required to provide their own ESPD form unless the contracting authority has explicitly required it in the tender documents.

Part III: Grounds for exclusion

In this part the bidder declares that neither the company nor its senior officers are subject to the grounds for exclusion under the Procurement Act, such as tax debts, economic crimes or environmental offences.

Tax debt: If a company has a tax debt for which an official and observed payment arrangement has been made with the Tax Administration, the company is not automatically excluded. In that case the details of the arrangement are reported on the form.
Restoring reliability (self-cleaning): If a company has past breaches in its background, the Procurement Act (section 82) allows reliability to be demonstrated through corrective measures. The form can then describe the measures by which the company has prevented similar mistakes from recurring and restored its reliability for the contracting authority to assess.

Part IV: Selection criteria (suitability)

This part confirms that the company meets the minimum financial and technical requirements set by the contracting authority, such as the required turnover and references.

Contracting authorities often use the so-called "alpha question" (point a: "Global indication for all selection criteria"). If the authority has allowed this option, the bidder does not need to fill in the whole part in detail. A single affirmative answer to that question is enough to declare that all the suitability requirements in the tender documents are met.

Practices for handling the ESPD form efficiently

Handling the ESPD form is a straightforward administrative process; the following practices help make it smoother:

A declaration, not an attachment: The ESPD is a preliminary declaration. Separate certificates, such as trade register extracts or tax debt certificates, are not attached to the bid unless the tender documents exceptionally require it.
Reusing information: Most electronic tendering systems for public procurement (Cloudia or Tarjouspalvelu, for example) save previously entered ESPD answers. A bidder can reuse this baseline information in future tenders, as long as its accuracy and currency are checked before the bid is submitted.
Bidding as a consortium: If the bid is submitted as a consortium of several companies, each company in the group must complete and submit its own full ESPD form.

Frequently asked questions

What is the ESPD form?

The European Single Procurement Document (section 87) is a bidder's declaration that the company meets the suitability requirements and that no grounds for exclusion apply. Official certificates are as a rule checked only from the winner of the tender before the contract.

Does a subcontractor need its own ESPD form?

A subcontractor whose references or resources the bidder relies on always completes its own separate ESPD form. An ordinary subcontractor is as a rule not required to, unless the contracting authority has required it in the tender documents.

Does a tax debt prevent taking part in a tender?

Not automatically. If an official and observed payment arrangement has been made with the Tax Administration, the company reports the details of the arrangement on the form and is not excluded merely because of the debt.