OJEU
Acronym for Official Journal of the European Union; the pre-Brexit publication for above-threshold UK and EU procurement notices.
Definition
OJEU is the acronym for Official Journal of the European Union, the pre-Brexit publication where UK public sector contracts above EU thresholds had to be advertised. UK contracts above threshold were published on OJEU until 31 December 2020. From 1 January 2021 the UK left the EU public procurement regime and Find a Tender Service (FTS) took over as the UK central portal for above-threshold opportunities. OJEU continues to operate as TED for EU member states.
How it works in practice
See the OJEU / FTS glossary entry for substantive coverage of the transition. The short version: the migration was practically seamless for UK suppliers because contract notice formats, threshold values, and OCDS data model carried over largely unchanged. The substantive change was domain: UK public sector contract notices now live on the find-tender.service.gov.uk domain rather than the EU TED website. Historical OJEU notices remain accessible via TED archives, useful for analytical work such as tracking winning supplier history. Cross-border procurement is less common since Brexit but UK suppliers selling into the EU still monitor TED for relevant lots, and EU suppliers selling into the UK monitor FTS. For current procurement monitoring in the UK, FTS plus Contracts Finder, Sell2Wales, and Public Contracts Scotland are the relevant portals. OJEU is now mostly of historical interest for UK procurement; the term occasionally appears in older documentation but should not be used for new procurement. Bid teams maintaining content libraries built before 2021 should sweep references to OJEU and update to FTS for current procurement context; mixed terminology in bid responses can confuse newer team members and reads as slightly out of date to evaluators who have moved on.
Common questions
Are there still OJEU notices for UK contracts?
No new UK-buyer notices have been published on OJEU since 1 January 2021. Some pre-Brexit OJEU notices are still in force as ongoing contracts or framework call-offs; the underlying contract remains valid even though the notice was published under the OJEU regime.
Do I need to monitor TED if I only sell in the UK?
No. UK contract notices from 2021 onwards are on FTS, Contracts Finder, Sell2Wales, or Public Contracts Scotland. TED is only relevant if you sell cross-border into EU member states.
When should the OJEU acronym not be used?
For any new UK procurement post-Brexit. OJEU is historical; the current term is FTS for above-threshold UK procurement. Older documentation may still reference OJEU; update where you encounter it in your bid library to avoid confusing newer team members.