TENDER FILE / TERMS OF REFERENCE

(Competitive bidding procedure / One-off contract)

Purchase of content adaptation and communication support (re-writing and simplifying texts for the target audience, PR), as well as design, publishing, and printing services

Contract N° 9305/2025/04

The Council of Europe is currently implementing the Project “Further strengthening judicial and non-judicial remedies for human rights protection of the war-affected people in Ukraine” (hereinafter – the Project) within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” 2023-2026. The Project aims at improving access to justice, human rights protection, and information for war-affected people within constitutional, civil, and administrative proceedings as well as strengthening non-judicial human rights restoration mechanisms for IDPs and other war-affected population in Ukraine.

In light of ongoing full-scale Russian aggression and its long-term consequences for civilians, the Project aims to support the development and strengthening of national judicial and non-judicial remedies, with a focus on access to justice, legal aid, compensation mechanisms, and institutional coordination in favour of internally displaced persons (IDPs), persons affected by occupation, destruction of property, loss of documents, captivity, and other war-related harms.

Within the Project, national experts are engaged to develop brochures for war-affected people. These brochures should be designed in a unified style and presented in clear, accessible language rather than legal terminology, ensuring they are understandable and practical for people in stress, those who have lost something, and those directly affected by the war.

In this context, the Project is looking for a Provider to deliver services covering content adaptation
(re-writing texts into clear, accessible, and engaging language for the specific target group), design, publishing, and printing of brochures that outline a comprehensive step-by-step roadmap for war-affected persons. (See Section A of the Act of Engagement).

A.    TENDER RULES

This tender procedure is a competitive bidding procedure. In accordance with Rule 1395 of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on the procurement procedures of the Council of Europe[1], the Organisation shall invite to tender at least three potential providers for any purchase between €2,000 (or €6,000 for intellectual services) and €55,000 tax exclusive.

This specific tender procedure aims at concluding a one-off contract for the provision of deliverables described in the Act of Engagement (See attached). A tender is considered valid for 180 calendar days as from the closing date for submission. The selection of tenderers will be made in the light of the criteria indicated below. All tenderers will be informed in writing of the outcome of the procedure.

The tenderer must be either a natural person, a legal person or consortia of legal and/or natural persons.

Tenders shall be submitted by email only (with attachments) to the email address indicated in the table below, with the following reference in subject:  9305/2025/03. Tenders addressed to another email address will be rejected.

The general information and contact details for this procedure are indicated on this page. You are invited to use the CoE Contact details indicated below for any question you may have. All questions shall be submitted at least 1 (one) working day before the deadline for submission of the tenders and shall be exclusively addressed to the email address indicated below with the following reference in subject: Questions_ 9305/2025/3.

Type of contract ►	One-off contract
Duration ►	Until complete execution of the obligations of the parties (See Article 2 of the Legal conditions as reproduced in the Act of Engagement)
Deadline for submission of tenders/offers ►	29 September 2025 11h59 CET
Email for submission of tenders/offers ►	[email protected]
Email for questions ►	[email protected]
Expected starting date of execution ►	03 October 2025

B.    EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

The expected deliverables are described in Section A of the Act of Engagement (See attached).

C.    FEES

All tenderers are invited to fill in the table of fees as reproduced in Section A of the Act of Engagement.

Tenderers subject to VAT shall also send a quote (Pro Forma invoice) on their letterhead including:

-     the Service Provider’s name and address;

-     its VAT number;

-     the full list of services;

-     the fee per type of deliverables (in the currency indicated on the Act of Engagement, tax exclusive);

-     the total amount per type of deliverables (in the currency indicated on the Act of Engagement, tax exclusive);

-     the total amount (in the currency indicated on the Act of Engagement), tax exclusive, the applicable VAT rate, the amount of VAT and the amount VAT inclusive.

D.    ASSESSMENT

Exclusion criteria and absence of conflict of interests

(by signing the Act of Engagement, you declare on your honour not being in any of the below situations^[2])

Tenderers shall be excluded from participating in the tender procedure if they:

• have been sentenced by final judgment on one or more of the following charges: participation in a criminal organisation, corruption, fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, terrorist offences or offences linked to terrorist activities, child labour or trafficking in human beings;
• are in a situation of bankruptcy, liquidation, termination of activity, insolvency or arrangement with creditors or any like situation arising from a procedure of the same kind, or are subject to a procedure of the same kind;
• have received a judgment with res judicata force, finding an offence that affects their professional integrity or serious professional misconduct;
• do not comply with their obligations as regards payment of social security contributions, taxes and dues, according to the statutory provisions of their country of incorporation, establishment or residence;
• are an entity created to circumvent tax, social or other legal obligations (empty shell company), have ever created or are in the process of creation of such an entity;
• have been involved in mismanagement of the Council of Europe funds or public funds;

·         are or appear to be in a situation of conflict of interest;

·         are retired Council of Europe staff members or are staff members having benefitted from an early departure scheme;

·         are currently employed by the Council of Europe or were employed by the Council of Europe on the date of the launch of the procurement procedure;

·         have not fulfilled, in the previous three years, their contractual obligations in the performance of a

contract concluded with the Council of Europe leading to a total or partial refusal of payment and/or

termination of the contract by the Council of Europe;

·         are subject to restrictive measures applied by the United Nations Security Council or the European Union. In the case of legal persons, the restrictive measures imposed on the tenderer’s owner(s) or executives will also exclude the tenderer from participating in this tender procedure.

Eligibility criteria

The eligibility criteria determine the conditions for participating in a procurement procedure and define the essential requirements that each bidder must comply with. Bidders shall demonstrate that they fulfil the following criteria:

Eligibility criteria	Document/s to be submitted
The tenderer should be registered as a legal entity under the Ukrainian legislation and should be authorised to provide the services on content adaptation and communication support, publishing and other printing production.	Registration documents
Work experience: At least two years of relevant experience in the field of content adaptation and communication support, design, publishing, and printing services. Proficiency in professional design software (e.g., Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, or equivalent). Strong skills in layout design, typography, and use of infographics. Ability to deliver high-quality print-ready and digital files.	Brief description of the company’s experience in provision of the publishing services
Specific thematic expertise: confirmed expertise in the field of content adaptation and communication support, design, publishing, and printing services as evidenced by the information included in the supporting documents	Samples of previous work, bidders are requested to provide a portfolio of previous work demonstrating their experience in PR, design, publishing, and printing services

The above eligibility criteria will be assessed on the basis of the documents listed in the table and, where relevant, on the basis of other supporting documents listed in Section F.

For legal persons only: legal persons are requested to include in their bids the profiles of a maximum of 3 natural persons proposed to be assigned to the contract. The status of each natural person included in the bid must be specified, and in particular whether they are employees or subcontractors. Each natural person included in the bid will be assessed against the above eligibility criteria. The Council reserves the right not to accept the inclusion in the contract of persons who do not meet the eligibility criteria or to reject a bid entirely if no profiles met the eligibility criteria.[3]

For consortia only: each consortium member will be assessed against the eligibility criteria above. Consortium members who are legal persons are requested to provide the profiles of a maximum of 6 natural persons proposed to be assigned to the contract. The status of each natural person included in the bid must be specified, and in particular whether they are employees or subcontractors.

Each natural person included in the bid submitted by a consortium – whether as an individual consortium member or as a natural person attached to a legal person – will be assessed against the above eligibility criteria. The Council reserves the right not to accept the inclusion in the contract of persons who do not meet the eligibility criteria or to reject a bid entirely if no profiles meet the eligibility criteria.[4] 

Award criteria

The award criteria aim at assessing the quality of a bidin order to identify the bid/s offering the best value for money. Eligible bids will be assessed against the following award criteria:

Award criteria	Document/s to be submitted
Quality of the offer: 40 %	Samples of previous work
Financial offer: 60 %	Completed and signed Act of Engagement

The above award criteria will be assessed based on the bidder’s capacity, as outlined in the supporting document, or on the basis of a consolidated assessment of the combined capacity of all eligible profiles or consortium members if the bid is submitted by a legal person or a consortium.

Additional rules applicable to the submission and assessment of the bids

The bidders’ attention is drawn to the following additional rules governing the assessment of the bids:

§  Unless expressily provided otherwise in the tender documents, a bidder may not submit more than one bid for the same procurement procedure. Bidding for more than one lot – where a contract is divided into lots – is allowed;

§  In the same procurement procedure,  natural person may not submit a bid on his/her own behalf and, at the same time, be included in a bid submitted by a legal person or a consortium. In such cases, the Council of Europe reserves the right to exclude the bid submitted by the natural person from the procurement procedure;

§  In the same procurement procedure, a legal person may not submit a bid and, at the same time, be a member of a consortium also bidding under the same procurement procedure. In such cases, the Council of Europe reserves the right to exclude the bid submitted by the legal person from the procurement procedure.

E.     NEGOTIATIONS

The Council reserves the right to hold negotiations with the bidders in accordance with Article 20 of Rule 1395.

F.    DOCUMENTS TO BE PROVIDED

Ø  One completed and signed copy of the Act of Engagement;[5]

Ø  All the documents listed above, under Section E, necessary for the assessment of the bid under the eligibility and award criteria:

-       Registration documents (scanned copies of registration documents certifying the type of economic activity

       of the tenderer);

-     Brief description of the company’s experience in provision of content adaptation and communication support (PR), design, publishing, and printing services;

-     Pictures of samples of previously printed publications and graphic materials (books / manuals / posters /

      other printed items), etc;

All documents shall be submitted in English except for registration documents (to be submitted in Ukrainian), failure to do so will result in the exclusion of the tender. If any of the documents listed above are missing, the Council of Europe reserves the right to reject the tender.

Documents may be submitted via file sharing services such as WeTransfer, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.). In this case, the link must mandatorily remain active for at least 30 days after the deadline for the submission of the bids. Failure to ensure this may lead to the bid being excluded from the procurement procedure.

The Council reserves the right to reject a tender if the scanned documents are of such a quality that the documents cannot be read.

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