SARA lepingud (harmoniseeritud, Hispaania)

The definition

Article 19.1 of Ley 9/2017 (LCSP) defines contratos sujetos a regulación armonizada as works, works concession, services concession, supply and service contracts whose estimated value — calculated under art. 101 — equals or exceeds the amounts set in the following articles, provided the contracting entity is a contracting authority (poder adjudicador). Subsidised contracts under art. 23 also count. That proviso matters: public sector entities that are not contracting authorities never have SARA contracts, whatever the value.

The thresholds

The figures sit in the LCSP but are updated by ministerial order in step with the EU revisions. Those in force from 1 January 2026, set by Orden HAC/1517/2025 of 18 December, are:

• Works, works concessions and services concessions: estimated value of €5,404,000 or more (art. 20.1).
• Supplies: €140,000 for the central state administration, its autonomous bodies and the Social Security managing entities and common services; €216,000 for all other supply contracts (art. 21.1). For defence-sector bodies the lower figure applies only to the products listed in Annex II.
• Services: €140,000 for the central state administration and its autonomous bodies and Social Security entities; €216,000 for other public sector entities; €750,000 for social and other specific services listed in Annex IV (art. 22.1).
• Subsidised contracts: €5,404,000 for the qualifying works listed in art. 23.1.a), and €216,000 for services linked to them.

All figures are estimated value, exclusive of VAT.

Lots are aggregated. Where their cumulative value reaches the threshold, the harmonised rules apply to each lot — but the contracting body may except lots below €1,000,000 for works, or below €80,000 for supplies and services, provided the excepted lots together do not exceed 20% of the cumulative value (arts. 20.2, 21.2 and 22.2).

What is excluded regardless of value

Article 19.2 removes a list of contracts from the regime whatever they are worth: audiovisual and radio programme acquisition and broadcasting time; contracts within art. 346 TFEU in the defence sector; contracts declared secret or reserved, or requiring special security measures; contracts whose main object is public communications networks or electronic communications services; a defined list of legal services, including court and arbitral representation and notarial certification; civil defence, civil protection and occupational risk prevention services provided by non-profits under listed CPV codes; public passenger transport by rail or metro and passenger transport concessions; and certain drinking-water network concessions.

What changes when a contract is SARA

Advertising. Article 135.1 requires the tender notice to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in addition to the perfil de contratante, and the authority must be able to prove the date the notice was sent. Under art. 135.3 nothing may be published in the profile or the state gazette before OJEU publication, unless 48 hours have passed since confirmation of receipt. The formalisation notice must also go to the OJEU, sent no later than 10 days after formalisation (arts. 154.1 and 154.3).

Time to respond. In an open procedure for a SARA contract, the minimum period for offers is 35 days for works, supplies and services and 30 days for concessions, counted from the date the notice was sent to the EU Publications Office (art. 156.2). It can drop to 15 days where a prior information notice was sent between 12 months and 35 days beforehand, or in cases of urgency, and by a further five days where electronic offers are accepted (art. 156.3). For non-SARA contracts the minimum is 15 days from publication in the perfil de contratante, or 26 days for works and concessions (art. 156.6).

Competition screening. Under art. 150.1, in SARA contracts well-founded indications of collusion must be referred to the competition authority before award, which immediately suspends the tender until the report arrives.

Nullity. Failure to publish the tender notice in the OJEU where required is a ground of full nullity under art. 39.2.c.

What SARA does not change

Two confusions are worth clearing.

SARA status is not the trigger for the special procurement appeal. That remedy has its own, lower and differently drawn thresholds under art. 44.1: above €3,000,000 of estimated value for works and concessions and above €100,000 for supplies and services. Every SARA supply or service contract is therefore appealable, but so are very many contracts far below the harmonised thresholds.

Nor does SARA status define the ceiling of the simplified open procedure, though the two are linked: art. 159.1.a) sets that ceiling for supplies and services by reference to the central state figures in arts. 21.1.a) and 22.1.a) — €140,000 — and at €2,000,000 for works.

What to do about it

If you are monitoring Spain from outside and relying on TED, understand what you are seeing. TED shows the SARA layer. Everything below it — including the whole of the simplified open procedure and every contrato menor — exists only in the perfil de contratante on PLACSP or a regional platform. A TED-only view of Spain is a view of the largest contracts, not of the market.

If you are planning capacity, work backwards from art. 156. A SARA open procedure gives at least 30 to 35 days from dispatch of the notice, and less once reductions apply; a non-SARA one can give 15. Bid preparation that depends on subcontractor quotes or translated evidence does not fit into 15 days unless the groundwork — registration, classification or solvency evidence, powers of attorney — is already done.

And check the estimated value against the right threshold before assuming a contract will appear in the OJEU: the €140,000 and €216,000 figures turn on who the buyer is, not on what is bought.

Related terms

• PLACSP — Hispaania riiklik hangete platvorm
• Erikaebus hankeküsimustes (Hispaania)
• perfil de contratante (Spain) — hankija profiil
• Contrato menor (Spain) — väike leping

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