Public procurement procedures and tenders, which represent more than 16.3% of European Union GDP, are an important part of the European and World's economy. Harmonisation procedures for concluding such contracts and information accessibility are, therefore, major achievements of the European internal market as they allow companies to work in different environments in an easy and equitable way.

The Office for Official Publications of the European Communities has adopted some modifications over the Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) Codification, which is commonly used to classify all the Public Procurement contracts. This new codification entered into force on September 17th, 2008 and Euroalert.net has implemented it since the very first day, offering all the Calls for Tenders and Commercial Opportunities published in the OJEU under the new 2008 CPV Codes.

The new 2008 version establishes more than 9,000 class codes to classify the different public contracts. The application of this system follows the rules set up by EU Directives on the coordination for public procurement award procedures.

All the options Euroalert.net offers for service subscriptions, allow to filter the results using 2008 CPV Codes. With this codification, and thanks to Euroalert.net widgets, our subscribers can sort the results and publish in their websites or intranets only those Calls for Tenders which are relevant for their users.

How do CPV Codes work?

The CPV Codification consists of a main vocabulary which defines the subject of the contract, and a supplementary vocabulary to add further qualitative information. The main vocabulary is based on a tree structure made up with codes of up to 9 digits (an 8 digit code plus a check digit). This combination of digits is associated with a wording that describes the type of supplies, works or services defining the subject of the contract. A Call for Tender is quite often described by more than one CPV Code, aiming to give a better and more detailed description of the object of the contract.

CPV Codes are essential, as the use of different nomenclatures would be detrimental to the openness and transparency of public procurement in Europe. By the obligatory adoption of such codification in all Member States on February 1st, 2006, the European Commission aimed to remove those de facto barriers. This publication had an extraordinary impact over the quality and the publication deadlines of the Calls, allowing free access to public procurement by all economic operators and better possibilities to filter opportunities.

CPV Main Vocabulary classification structure

The numerical code consists of 8 digits, subdivided into:

• Divisions: first two digits of the code XX000000-Y.
• Groups: first three digits of the code XXX00000-Y.
• Classes: first four digits of the code XXXX0000-Y.
• Categories: first five digits of the code XXXXX000-Y.

For example:

• 63343000-5 Buy positioning services

Each of the last three digits of the code allows to provide a more precise description of the subject within each category. The ninth digit, the so-called "control digit", verifies the previous eight ones, avoiding any possible error in the assignation of codes to the subject of public procurement

CPV Supplementary Vocabulary classification structure

Although the supplementary vocabulary is not always used, it can be added in certain cases to expand the description of the subject of a contract. It is made up of an alphanumeric code with a corresponding wording allowing further details to be added regarding the specific nature or destination of the goods to be purchased.

The alphanumeric code includes the following levels:

• First level comprising a letter corresponding to a section
• Second level comprising four digits: three to denote a subdivision and the last one for verification purposes.

For example:

• Z042-6: Width

Useful Links and Downloads

Those are some references and resources which can be useful to better understand the CPV System and work with it:

• V2008 CPV Vocabulary, adopted by Regulation (EC) nº 213/2008. 2008 CPV entered into force on September 17th, 2008.
  • 2008 CPV Vocabulary in Open Document Spreadsheet format (ODS)
  • 2008 CPV Vocabulary in XML format
  • 2008 CPV Vocabulary in Excel format (XLS)
  • 2008 CPV Vocabulary in PDF format
• Amendment over the 2003 CPV Vocabulary, adopted by Regulation (EC) nº 2151/2003. This vocabulary has been used between 16/12/2003 and 16/09/2008.
• 2003 CPV Vocabulary, adopted by Regulation (EC) nº 2195/2002. This vocabulary has been used between 16/12/2003 and 16/09/2008.

There are also some illustrative correspondence tables between CPV Codes and the following nomenclatures:

• Statistical Classification of Products by Activity in the EEC (CPA)
• Provisional Central Product Classification (CPC Prov.) of the United Nations
• General Industrial Classification of Economic Activities within the European Communities (NACE Rev. 1)
• Combined Nomenclature (CN)

Euroalert.net can provide you with those correspondence tables in any structured format (spreadsheet, data base, etc.). Just send us an email to info@euroalert.net