New opportunities for Czech exporters – Western Balkans and Turkey

Czech companies have been doing business in Western Balkan countries for decades and have long-lasting business contacts in this area. However, not all of them are aware that they are able to apply for public tenders for supplies, services, works and building launched within the framework of EU pre-accession aid.

At the end of June, more than 30 Czech companies gathered in Prague to discuss with representatives of CEBRE, Czech export agency CzechTrade and Czech bilateral embassies, how to apply for the European tenders and enter the local markets. Via a website of the European Commission called Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) entrepreneurs can follow the EU public tenders on a daily basis. TED displays tenders with a value of more than 60,000 EUR of the whole EU, the European Economic Area and beyond these two areas. Information about tenders between 25,000 and 60,000 EUR is published on respective websites of the specific Directorate Generals. TED facilitates finding a tender according to the country and domain of the business. TED opens the door to all the tenders of the EU institutions in the whole world, free of charge.

European Union backs up economic, regional and institutional development in the candidate countries (Croatia, Turkey and FYROM) and potential candidate countries (Albania, Serbia, Island, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) via unified Pre-accession instrument IPA. European companies can become partners when it comes to the application for projects within the IPA or participate in tenders within the preaccession aid.

The call for proposals and tenders can be followed on the EC delegations´ websites, website of the DG AidCo and in some countries like in Turkey on the web page of the CFCU (Central Finance and Contracting Unit). Czech companies are able to use their experience and best practices with EU funding in the candidate and potential candidate countries. EU funding has also its advantage, as there is no need to pay the taxes and the customs within the realized projects.