Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2025-09-01
Buyer: European Central Bank
Country: DE
Region: DE712
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated with prior call for competition
CPV classification: 30236200 | 32400000 | 32412100 | 45232320 | 45314000
Estimated value: 162840000 EUR
Submission deadline: 2025-10-01

Technical requirements: Based on Art. 30 of the ECB Procurement rules (Decision ECB/2016/2, as amended)
[Applicable only to Lot 1]: In deviation from Article 30 (1) of the Decision ECB/2016/2 laying down the rules on procurement (as amended), (available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02016D0002-20200501), subject to the following place of establishment and control requirement: Only the following may be eligible as candidates, tenderers, members of a temporary grouping or sub-contractors: - EU Nationals that - are controlled by EU Nationals. Should candidates, tenderers or members of a temporary grouping that do not fulfil these requirements apply/submit an application, the application/tender will be excluded. Should sub-contractors be proposed that do not fulfil these requirements (i.e. being an EU National being controlled by an EU National), the ECB will either decide to exclude the application/tender or request that the sub-contractor be replaced with a sub-contractor that does fulfil the requirements.
An EU National means any legal entity with registered offices in an EU member state or any natural person that has the nationality of an EU member state. Control means the ability to exercise a decisive influence on an undertaking, directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediate undertakings. Control can take any of the following forms:
(i) the direct or indirect holding of more than 50% of the nominal value of the issued share capital in the legal entity concerned, or of a majority of the voting rights of the shareholders or associates of that entity,  (ii) the direct or indirect holding, in fact or in law, of decision-making powers in the legal entity concerned. The contractors must moreover ensure that any cooperation with Nationals of third countries (non-EU countries) or that are controlled by such a country and/or by a national of such a country does not affect the security interests and avoids potential negative effects over security of supply of inputs that are critical to the procurement and the procurement subject.  
As proof, Candidates shall submit a declaration(s) in the Annex CfA4 for themselves and potential members of temporary groups or subcontractors. The ECB reserves the right to request further information or proof in this context to assess, if the above requirements are fulfilled. Candidates shall inform the ECB without undue delay if any circumstances arise after the submission of their application that may affect their eligibility in relation to ownership and control.
[Applicable only to Lot 2]: The tender procedure shall be open on equal terms to all natural or legal persons resident or located in the European Union and to all natural and legal persons resident or located in a country which has ratified the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Government Procurement or has concluded with the European Union a bilateral agreement on procurement under the conditions laid down in the said agreements. The tender procedure is conducted in accordance with Decision ECB/2016/2 laying down the rules on procurement (as amended), available at https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/legal/1001/procurement/html/index.en.html And in EUR-Lex: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02016D0002-20200501. The detailed features and terms and conditions of the procedure can be found in the procurement documents.
[Applicable to Lot 1 and 2]: Location of service delivery: The provision of all works and off-site consultancy services will take place exclusively within the European Economic Area (EEA). The future contractors staff (including possible temporary group members and subcontractors) assigned to this contract, must deliver and operate all Services from service delivery locations within the EEA.
Network Service Provider (NSP) Connectivity for the Digital Euro Service Platform (DESP). The maximum value of the service agreements for both lots is 355,320,000 EUR in total.
Within 10 days of receipt of the notification in accordance with Article 34(1) or the first sentence of Article 34(3) of Decision ECB/2016/2 laying down the rules on public procurement. Further requirements are outlined in Article 39 of this Decision. A complaint to the European Ombudsman does not affect the deadline for lodging appeals.
The scope of the procurement foresees the establishment of Connectivity Services that support the communication between the distributed components of its end-to-end IT solution. The connectivity comprises two components. These are external and inter-component connectivity. The first category (external connectivity) includes the connectivity services required to establish the technical communication between the IT infrastructure of external actors (mostly Payment Service Providers, PSPs and National Central Banks, NCBs) and the digital euro service platform (DESP), to ensure the smooth provision of digital euro services to end users. As DESP components might be hosted in different sites/data centers belonging to different providers, a second category of connectivity services includes the services needed to enable data exchanges between the different DESP components that are not co-located within the same IT infrastructure and that still do not have a way to communicate directly. This second category is referred to as inter-component connectivity.  Lot 1 participation is limited to EU nationals that are controlled by EU Nationals as defined in Chapter IV / Section 3.1 of the Call for Applications (CfA).

Eligibility requirements: Within 10 days of receipt of the notification in accordance with Article 34(1) or the first sentence of Article 34(3) of Decision ECB/2016/2 laying down the rules on public procurement. Further requirements are outlined in Article 39 of this Decision. A complaint to the European Ombudsman does not affect the deadline for lodging appeals.
The scope of the procurement foresees the establishment of Connectivity Services that support the communication between the distributed components of its end-to-end IT solution. The connectivity comprises two components. These are external and inter-component connectivity. The first category (external connectivity) includes the connectivity services required to establish the technical communication between the IT infrastructure of external actors (mostly Payment Service Providers, PSPs and National Central Banks, NCBs) and the digital euro service platform (DESP), to ensure the smooth provision of digital euro services to end users. As DESP components might be hosted in different sites/data centers belonging to different providers, a second category of connectivity services includes the services needed to enable data exchanges between the different DESP components that are not co-located within the same IT infrastructure and that still do not have a way to communicate directly. This second category is referred to as inter-component connectivity.  Lot 1 participation is limited to EU nationals that are controlled by EU Nationals as defined in Chapter IV / Section 3.1 of the Call for Applications (CfA).
The scope of the procurement foresees the establishment of Connectivity Services that support the communication between the distributed components of its end-to-end IT solution. The connectivity comprises two components. These are external and inter-component connectivity. The first category (external connectivity) includes the connectivity services required to establish the technical communication between the IT infrastructure of external actors (mostly Payment Service Providers, PSPs and National Central Banks, NCBs) and the digital euro service platform (DESP), to ensure the smooth provision of digital euro services to end users. As DESP components might be hosted in different sites/data centers belonging to different providers, a second category of connectivity services includes the services needed to enable data exchanges between the different DESP components that are not co-located within the same IT infrastructure and that still do not have a way to communicate directly. This second category is referred to as inter-component connectivity.  Lot 2 participation is unrestricted and open to both EU nationals and non-EU nationals.