The European Commission's Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union launches this call for tenders under the competitive dialogue procedure for the design, implementation and operation of the ECDH and its services, utilising foundational cloud services capacity and network capacity contracted by the Contracting Authority.
Some in-person meetings shall take place at the Commission's premises or at the premises of a National Administration, or another contractor involved in the ECDH project (§1.3 of the Descriptive Document) At least two physical dialogue meetings during the dialogue stage, organised by the Contracting Authority (§3.2.2 of the Descriptive Document) Service providers collecting Commission IT equipment must do so at the Commission's premises in Brussels or Luxembourg at the start of the contract (Appendix 3, §4.2) Most meetings will be virtual (§1.3 of the Descriptive Document) Routine day-to-day work is performed remotely from contractor's premises or home offices located in an EU Member State (§1.3 of the Descriptive Document; Appendix 3, §2.1) Ad-hoc profile pool daily rates are quoted as 'REMOTE EXTRAMUROS' (Annex 206, Financial Tender Form, sheet 2)
Candidates can be natural or legal persons. Candidates are not obliged to take a specific legal form to submit their Requests to Participate. Where Candidates submit a Request to Participate through an entity, which lacks legal personality (e.g., a branch), the compliance with the exclusion criteria, selection criteria, the rules on access to procurement as well as the absence of restrictive measures shall be assessed at the level of the Candidates. Candidates do not need to prove specific legal and regulatory capacity to perform the contract.
The average yearly turnover of the last three financial years must be at least EUR 80 million. The requirement is justified by the critical importance of meeting the legal milestones associated with the delivery of the core e-commerce data hub solution, including the underlying hosting infrastructure and related services. The Contracting Authority must ensure that the Candidate possesses sufficient financial robustness to sustain the necessary investments, resources and operational continuity required for the successful implementation and operation of such a critical system.
The Candidate must prove experience, capacity and ability to deliver turnkey Data Hub solutions and related managed operational services similar to the product model defined in Annex A, and in accordance with the operational services and service model defined in Annex B. The Candidate must submit five (5) distinct project references. Each project reference must demonstrate all the following: (1) Evidence of delivering and operating turnkey, large-scale and high-security Data Hub capabilities and services, of similar product complexity as defined in Annex A, with similar volumetrics as defined in the Non-Functional Requirements (NFR) section of Annex A, and in particular evidence of: enabling real-time high-volume operations at national and/or international level, for private or public customers; providing secured solutions hosted in, or compatible to be hosted in, single and/or multi-cloud; demonstrating how the solutions minimise vendor lock-in to the highest extent possible. (2) Successful delivery within the last five years preceding the deadline for submission of Requests to Participate; for ongoing projects, a project completion rate above 30%. (3) A total overall budget above EUR 30 million, and at least 30% of this budget already contractually committed (for ongoing projects). For each project reference, in case the project reference was delivered by a consortium: only the part attributed to the Candidate will be taken into consideration for this criterion; and the Candidate must have delivered at least 30% of the project reference.
The Candidate must prove to have the resources with minimum relevant experience to manage and deliver Data Hub solutions and related managed operational services as a turnkey delivery. The following Core Management Team, having the professional experience relevant to the scope of this contract, must be available: Project Sponsor (leading the core management team); ECDH Product Delivery and Contract Manager; Lead ECDH Product Architect; Lead ECDH Interoperability Architect; Chief Security Officer; Operations Service Delivery Manager (including Cloud and Network management); Business and Data Governance Manager (including Data Protection and Compliance). Please refer to Appendix 1 for the minimum requirements for each of the profiles listed in this criterion, in terms of education, professional experience, and security clearance (where applicable). For all profiles, a thorough knowledge (minimum C1 level) of English is required, and it applies to each linguistic ability (listening, reading, spoken interaction, spoken production, and writing).
Project Sponsor: Senior leader responsible for ensuring that the overall contract service delivery aligns with the Contracting Authority's strategic objectives. S/He provides strategic oversight, manages key stakeholder relationships, and makes high-level decisions to resolve major issues. This role includes ensuring proper resource allocation and managing overall contract performance.
ECDH Product Delivery and Contract Manager: Senior professional responsible for the overall delivery of the ECDH product, and for day-to-day interactions with the Contracting Authority. This role includes: tracking overall status on ECDH product delivery and ensuring quality standards are maintained; portfolio management in terms of financial, contract, IT asset and service demand management; all financial aspects of the contract, such as budget forecast, financial analysis, and the overall financial reporting.
Lead ECDH Product Architect: The Lead Architect is responsible for all aspects concerning the design, delivery and management of the IT architecture relevant for the ECDH product, ensuring that it meets business needs, is scalable, secure, and aligned with EC guidelines.
Lead ECDH Interoperability Architect: The Lead Interoperability Architect is responsible for all aspects concerning the IT architecture relevant for the interoperability of the ECDH product with other IT systems, including interoperability with Contracting Authority IT systems and National IT systems.
Chief Security Officer: Senior professional responsible for all aspects related to IT security. This role is the overall responsible for ensuring the security of the information and of the ECDH product managed by the Contractor, oversees the development and implementation of security policies and protocols to protect the ECDH product and data integrity, confidentiality and availability.
Operations Service Delivery Manager (including Cloud and Network management): The Operations Service Delivery Manager is responsible for: overseeing the daily operations and ensuring that the Contractor meets the agreed-upon service levels. S/He manages the service delivery team, monitors performance metrics, handles escalations, and manages the implementation of process improvements to enhance service quality and delivery; all aspects concerning the design, delivery and management of the cloud and network infrastructure relevant for this call for tenders, ensuring that it meets business needs, is scalable, secure, and aligned with EC guidelines.
Business and Data Governance Manager (including Data Protection and Compliance): The Business and Data Governance Manager is responsible for all aspects relating to compliance with business/policy and legal requirements, including EU data protection legislation, the EU data sovereignty and the EU cloud sovereignty rules.
The Candidate must demonstrate that it manages IT services and information security according to structured, audited best practices. The Candidate must provide evidence of organisational-level valid certification in all the following internationally recognised standards, which must cover the services within the scope of this call for tenders: ISO 20000-1 (IT Service Management) or equivalent; ISO 27001 (Information Security Management) or equivalent.
Involved entities (see Section 2.4) and all subcontractors, including those which do not need to be identified in the Request to Participate (see Section 2.4.2), must not be subject to professional conflicting interests which may negatively affect the contract performance. Where the Contracting Authority has established such conflicting interests, it may conclude that the Candidate/Tenderer or an involved entity does not possess the required professional capacity to perform the contract to an appropriate quality standard. The presence of conflicting interests shall, in particular, be examined on the basis of the following details, which the tenderer is required to disclose: (i) whether it has been involved - currently or at any point within the past 2 years - in framework contracts with the European Commission, in the areas of audit and/or security services which may exercise an audit/control role over this FWC; and (ii) whether it operates in markets related to the subject matter of this public procurement procedure, including e-commerce, logistics, or supply chain related services. In particular, a conflict of interest may be deemed to exist where the Candidate/Tenderer, or entities within its group, are active in markets (including e-commerce, logistics, or supply chain services) that may benefit from access to data processed under the contract resulting from this call for tenders.
Published 8 June 2026 · rebuilt nightly from the official notice.