Competitive Dialogue

The term ‘competitive dialogue’ (CD) is used in EU Procurement law to describe a two-stage process for the award of complex contracts.

In the first stage, the procuring authority engages with potential suppliers to understand their technical and organisational capabilities. This allows the authority to develop a clear specification for the contract.

In the second stage, suppliers are invited to submit detailed proposals against the specification. The procuring authority then awards the contract to the supplier that is judged to be the most capable of delivering the required goods or services.

CD was introduced by the 2004 Directive on Public Contracts. It is an optional procedure that can be used for contracts above certain thresholds (currently €5 million for central government contracts and €4 million for other public bodies).