EU Public Contracts Monitor, October 2026

Key findings

27,006 contract award notices were published by buyers in Europe in October 2026 (days 1 to 23, like for like with earlier months), +9.2% against the month before like for like, with €47.9bn in stated award value across 19,211 notices (framework ceilings and single values above €250M excluded). 40,945 awarded contracts end between 2026-10-24 and 2027-01-23. 603 award notices carry the strict defence flag. Source: Arcadium Data, data as of 2026-10-23.

• Germany published the most award notices: 3,898 (14% of the total).
• Medical equipments, pharmaceuticals and personal care products is the largest category: 3,919 awards (15%).
• Most awards to one organisation: FARMEXIM S.A. with 211 notices.
• Busiest buyer: Ředitelství silnic a dálnic s. p. (Czechia), 205 award notices.
• Defence (strict flag): 603 award notices, most in Poland (132).
• Coverage note, United Kingdom: 1,290 awards against 3 the month before: not comparable month to month, left out of the like-for-like change.

Award notices per month, last 13 months

Award notices published by buyers in Europe, days 1 to 23 of each month. Country feeds that start or stop show up as steps (see coverage).

Award notices by country (top 15)

Country of the buyer.

Award notices by CPV division (top 15)

Common Procurement Vocabulary division of the main category.

Contracts ending in the next quarter, by country

Awarded contracts whose stated end date falls between 2026-10-24 and 2027-01-23. These are the re-tenders to expect.

Defence award notices (strict flag) by country

Strict defence flag only: Directive 2009/81/EC notices, defence ministries and armed forces buying more than civilian commodities, military CPV codes, security equipment, military words in the title.

Countries

* Feed coverage changed against the previous month: no month-to-month change is shown. Changes need 100+ notices in the earlier month.

Top winners

Organisations with a company or public-body form only; a notice with several winners counts once for each and its value is split evenly. Sole traders and private persons are never listed.

Top buyers

Buyers with the most contracts ending in the next quarter

40,945 contracts end in the window (7,363 frameworks, whose end is when the buyer sets up the next one). Per-contract detail with holders and values is in the Re-tender Radar.

Defence (strict flag): top winners, last 24 months

Counts, not euro totals: framework ceilings and placeholder values make summed defence values meaningless.

Methodology

• Source: contract award notices from TED (EU Official Journal), national procurement portals and UK Find a Tender, normalised daily. Every row keeps its source and notice URL.
• Counted: notices of kind award, national copies of TED notices skipped, published in the month. A correction or re-publication of the same award counts once per notice id.
• Stated value: the awarded value in EUR where the notice states one, after the safe filter (dropped under EUR 1,000, above EUR 1bn or above 10x the estimate), single values above EUR 250 million and framework ceilings excluded as likely ceilings or entry errors. Many notices state no value, so value totals are a floor.
• Like-for-like change: countries whose notice count moved more than 4x against the previous month are treated as a feed change and left out of the comparison. Changes need 100+ notices in the earlier month.
• Contracts ending: awarded contracts whose end date is stated or computed from start date and duration (the basis is stored per row), between the dates named above. A contract can be extended or re-tendered earlier or later.
• Defence: the strict `defence` flag only; the separate flag for civilian purchases of defence buyers is not included.
• Winners and buyers are organisations. Names that could be a private person are withheld at ingest and never shown.

Coverage and caveats

• Award notices are published up to a few weeks after the award and some national portals publish in batches, so the latest month fills in later; we reissue the page each month.
• October 2026 is not over yet: every month in this report is cut at day 23 for a fair comparison.
• Feed changes: United Kingdom: 1,290 awards against 3 the month before.
• Below-threshold national procurement is only covered where the national portal is synced. UK Find a Tender coverage is uneven across 2026: read UK figures with care.
• This is a count of published notices, not a measure of public spending.

Use and embed

The aggregates on this page and in the CSV are licensed CC BY 4.0: use them freely, with a visible link to this page. Each chart is a standalone image; paste its snippet and the source link comes with it.

<figure style="margin:0"><a href="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/"><img src="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/monthly-awards.svg" alt="Award notices per month, last 13 months, October 2026" width="640" loading="lazy"></a><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/">Arcadium Data, EU Public Contracts Monitor, October 2026</a> (CC BY 4.0)</figcaption></figure>

<figure style="margin:0"><a href="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/"><img src="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/awards-by-country.svg" alt="Award notices by country (top 15), October 2026" width="640" loading="lazy"></a><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/">Arcadium Data, EU Public Contracts Monitor, October 2026</a> (CC BY 4.0)</figcaption></figure>

<figure style="margin:0"><a href="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/"><img src="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/awards-by-category.svg" alt="Award notices by CPV division (top 15), October 2026" width="640" loading="lazy"></a><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/">Arcadium Data, EU Public Contracts Monitor, October 2026</a> (CC BY 4.0)</figcaption></figure>

<figure style="margin:0"><a href="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/"><img src="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/ending-by-country.svg" alt="Contracts ending in the next quarter, by country, October 2026" width="640" loading="lazy"></a><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/">Arcadium Data, EU Public Contracts Monitor, October 2026</a> (CC BY 4.0)</figcaption></figure>

<figure style="margin:0"><a href="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/"><img src="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/defence-by-country.svg" alt="Defence award notices (strict flag) by country, October 2026" width="640" loading="lazy"></a><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/">Arcadium Data, EU Public Contracts Monitor, October 2026</a> (CC BY 4.0)</figcaption></figure>

Cite as: Arcadium Data, "EU Public Contracts Monitor", October 2026, https://arcadiumdata.io/reports/contracts-monitor/2026-10/, data as of 2026-10-23. CSV columns: month, as_of, dimension, key, label, award_notices, share, with_stated_value, stated_value_eur, change_mom_pct, change_yoy_pct, defence_award_notices, coverage_break. Aggregates only: no names of people, no job texts. Press: press kit.