SARA thresholds and minor contracts in Spain

Contracts sujetos a regulación armonizada (SARA, subject to EU-harmonised regulation) are those whose estimated value meets or exceeds the thresholds set by the EU directives. Those thresholds are revised every two years by the European Commission and incorporated into Spanish law by ministerial order. Since 1 January 2026, under Orden HAC/1517/2025, the reference thresholds are:

The 2026 revision brought a slight decrease compared with the previous two-year period, so some contracts that previously fell outside now enter the harmonised regime. The order itself sets the amounts applicable to other contracting authorities; in case of doubt, the binding figure is always the one stated in the contract notice.

Remember that the comparison is made against the contract's estimated value, excluding VAT and including foreseen extensions and modifications, not against the base budget. The difference between the two figures is explained in the article on the base tender budget, estimated value and price.

Crossing the threshold does not change the award procedure (a SARA contract can be run as an open procedure just like a below-threshold one), but it does change three things with direct effect for bidders:

Publicity goes European. The notice must be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) as well as on Spain's procurement platform, and minimum submission periods lengthen: in the open procedure, 35 calendar days from dispatch of the notice to the OJEU, against 26 days for below-threshold works. For companies, that means more preparation time and more potential competition, including from other Member States.

The special review opens up. The main acts of the tender (documents, exclusion, award) can be challenged before the administrative procurement tribunals, with automatic suspension of contract signature if the award is challenged. For works, the special review actually reaches below the SARA threshold: it is available from an estimated value of EUR 3,000,000. The detail is developed in the article on the special procurement review.

Scrutiny intensifies. SARA contracts carry reinforced reporting and statistical obligations and attract the attention of audit bodies. In practice, SARA tender documents tend to be more carefully drafted, precisely because the risk of challenge is higher.

At the opposite end of the scale sits the contrato menor (minor contract), regulated by article 118 of the LCSP. It is not a tendering procedure but a direct award justified by the small amount involved:

The regime is deliberately light: a report from the contracting authority justifying the need, approval of the expenditure and the invoice. For works, a budget for the works is added and, where specific rules require it, a design. In exchange, the minor contract has strict limits: it cannot exceed one year in duration, cannot be extended and does not allow price revision.

For construction SMEs, the minor contract is often the entry door to public clients: small repairs, one-off maintenance, conservation work. Many town councils publish their minor contracts on their contracting profile or keep lists of companies they ask for quotes; getting known in those circuits is a low-cost commercial strategy.

The counterpart of the light regime is the ban on splitting: a contract may not be divided into several minor contracts to evade publicity or procedure thresholds. The rule is applied by looking at the functional unity of the work: refurbishing one building through three consecutive minor contracts of EUR 35,000 with the same object is splitting, even if each contract taken alone respects the ceiling.

Irregular splitting is one of the breaches most frequently flagged by external audit bodies, and the consequences also reach the good-faith contractor: nullity of the contract drags down the outstanding invoicing and complicates collection. Faced with a chain of suspiciously sliced small orders, commercial prudence advises documenting each order and how its object differs.

For a contractor, the three bands sketch three different markets. The minor contract runs on direct commercial relationships and speed of response. The below-SARA band (the vast majority of local public works) plays out on the procurement platform, with short deadlines and regional competition. The SARA band demands structure: longer timelines, more documentation, potentially European competition and, in exchange, larger contracts and a review system that better protects the diligent bidder.

A regional contractor spots three opportunities in the same week and classifies them by regime before deciding:

The strategic reading: the first is won through commercial relationships and a fast quote; the second requires an up-to-date ROLECE registration and a bidding loop able to respond in 20 days; the third justifies investing in a higher-quality bid, knowing the deadline is longer and any irregularity by the committee can be challenged before the review tribunal. Each band demands a different organisation inside the company.

Note also that the wastewater plant would have fallen within the special review's scope even at an estimated value of EUR 3.5 million, well below the SARA threshold: in works, the two lines do not coincide. Both thresholds are worth checking separately in each tender.

Under the LCSP, dividing contracts into lots is the general rule, and its relationship with the thresholds carries a nuance that surprises: the estimated value compared against the thresholds is the aggregate of all lots, not each lot taken separately. A project divided into four lots of 1.6 million each is a contract with an estimated value of 6.4 million: SARA as a whole, with European publicity and the special review available for every lot, even though none reaches the threshold on its own.

For bidders, lots also carry their own rules that the notice must declare: whether one may bid for one, several or all lots; whether there is a maximum number of lots awardable to the same company; and whether scoring runs lot by lot or admits integrated offers. A specialised SME may find in a EUR 400,000 lot of a SARA contract an entry door with the procedural safeguards of the large contract: long deadlines, European publicity and the special review available. Reading the lot structure is therefore part of the threshold analysis, not an accessory section.