How to apply — portal by portal: registration, signature and fees across Europe compared
5 portal families compared: on all of them the buyer sets the signature type per procedure; none prescribes it across the board, none requires a national eID to sign in. Every statement comes from the operator's manual.
A bid in another EU country rarely fails on price and often on technicalities: the wrong signature type, a missing national identity, a tool that only runs with Java. This table puts the requirements side by side; every row leads to the step-by-step guide.
Requirements compared
| Portal family | Countries | Read without account | Identity | Signature | ESPD | Fees | Foreign companies | checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cosinex Vergabemarktplatz / DTVP cosinex GmbH (Bochum); state instances run on behalf of the German federal states | Germany | yes | company account | set per procedure | not documented | Registration: free; Bid: free; Documents: free | equal access | 04/09/2026 |
| e-Vergabe des Bundes (evergabe-online.de) Beschaffungsamt des Bundesministeriums des Innern (BeschA), Bonn | Germany | yes | user account | set per procedure | not documented | Registration: free; Bid: free; Documents: free | equal access | 04/09/2026 |
| e-Zamówienia (Polen) Urząd Zamówień Publicznych (UZP), Warsaw | Poland | yes | company account | set per procedure | not documented | Registration: free; Bid: free; Documents: free | special route needed | 04/09/2026 |
| PLACSP — Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público (Spanien) Ministerio de Hacienda, Dirección General del Patrimonio del Estado | Spain | yes | user account | set per procedure | not documented | Registration: free | special route needed | 04/09/2026 |
| PLACE — Plateforme des achats de l'État (Frankreich) Direction des Achats de l'État (DAE), Ministère de l'Économie | France | yes | user account | set per procedure | not documented | Registration: free; Bid: free; Documents: free | equal access | 04/09/2026 |
Entries from the operators' manuals and help pages as of the check date; not legal advice. The manual and the procurement documents of each procedure are authoritative.
What repeats — and what does not
Three patterns hold across borders: registration with company data is free everywhere, the ESPD initially replaces all evidence, and documents are free to read. The differences sit in two fields — which identity registration demands and which signature submission demands. Those two fields decide whether a foreign bidder fails on submission day.
Frequently asked questions
On which portals do I not need an electronic signature?
None of the compared portals fixes this across the board: the buyer sets the signature type per procedure, and the notice states it.
Where is a qualified signature mandatory?
None of the compared portals prescribes it generally per manual.
Where do I need a national electronic identity?
None of the compared portals requires a national eID.
Does participation cost money?
Registration and reading are free on all compared portals; where a bid or documents cost, the table says so with a source.
How current is the comparison?
5 families, each with a check date in the table. Portals change without notice — the linked manual is authoritative.