Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT)

Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) is the evaluation standard used across EU public procurement and by EU-financed institutions such as the EIB. Instead of awarding purely on price, MEAT allows buyers to score tenders on a combination of criteria, then select the tender with the highest combined score.

What is MEAT?

MEAT was formalised in the EU Procurement Directives and applies to contracts above EU thresholds. Under MEAT, the contracting authority publishes a set of award criteria in the contract notice and the tender documents. These criteria typically combine price or cost with quality elements such as technical merit, after-sales service, environmental performance, social value, or delivery schedule. Each criterion carries a declared weighting, so bidders know how the final score will be calculated before they submit.

MEAT is closely related to the concept of best-value-for-money, which development banks and UN agencies use with broadly the same intent. The key discipline for bidders is that price alone does not win: a higher-quality proposal with a competitive price can outscore a bare-minimum offer at a lower price. MEAT also supports a scored-evaluation process, meaning evaluators assign numerical marks against each criterion rather than simply ranking bids.

The buyer must publish the criteria and their weightings in advance and must not change them after the deadline. This transparency obligation is one of the strongest protections MEAT offers bidders.

Why MEAT matters for bidders

MEAT rewards bidders who read the award criteria carefully and build their tender around them. Because quality criteria can carry 30 to 70 percent of the total score, a technically strong supplier who prices competitively will often beat a cheaper but weaker competitor. The practical discipline is to allocate your proposal effort in proportion to the published weightings: if sustainability carries 20 percent of the score, devote genuine substance to that section rather than a paragraph. Ignoring quality criteria and competing on price alone is a losing strategy under MEAT, yet it remains the most common bidder mistake on EU-funded contracts.

FAQ

What criteria can a buyer include under MEAT?

Buyers can include price, cost (including lifecycle cost), quality, technical merit, delivery schedule, after-sales service, environmental characteristics, social criteria, and innovation, provided each criterion is linked to the subject matter of the contract and its weighting is declared in the tender documents.

Is MEAT mandatory for all EU public contracts?

MEAT is the default evaluation basis for contracts above EU thresholds, though buyers can still award purely on price for simple, standardised goods where quality differentiation is not meaningful.

How does MEAT differ from the lowest-price-only approach?

Lowest price selects whichever responsive bidder quotes the cheapest figure. MEAT scores tenders on multiple criteria and selects the tender with the highest combined score, which can belong to a bidder who is not the cheapest but whose overall offer delivers the most value to the buyer.