The European Union's public procurement market exceeds EUR 2 trillion annually. But that aggregate figure masks enormous variation in where the money actually flows. Understanding sectoral spending patterns is essential for any company competing in B2G markets — it determines which sectors offer the most volume, the highest growth, and the best competitive dynamics for new entrants.
This analysis breaks down EU procurement spending by sector, drawing on published contract data from TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) and national procurement platforms. Using CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) classification data, we map where European governments direct their purchasing power — and where the trends point for 2026 and beyond.
How EU procurement spending is classified
Before examining the numbers, it is important to understand how procurement data is structured.
Every above-threshold contract notice published in the EU must include at least one CPV code — a standardized classification that identifies what is being purchased. The CPV system contains over 9,000 individual codes organized into 45 divisions, ranging from agricultural products (CPV 03) to recreational services (CPV 92).
This classification enables systematic analysis across countries and time periods. When we say "IT procurement," we mean contracts classified under CPV Division 72 (IT services), Division 48 (software packages), Division 30 (office and computing machinery), and related codes. When we say "construction," we mean CPV Divisions 45 (construction work) and 71 (architectural and engineering services).
The CPV system is not perfect — contracting authorities sometimes misclassify contracts, use overly generic codes, or apply different codes to similar purchases. But it remains the most comprehensive structured dataset available for analyzing EU procurement by sector.
The big picture: sectoral shares
Based on analysis of above-threshold contract notices published between 2022 and 2025, EU procurement spending breaks down roughly as follows across major sectors:
| Sector | Approximate share of total value | Key CPV divisions |
|---|---|---|
| Construction and public works | 35-40% | 45, 71 |
| Healthcare and pharmaceuticals | 15-18% | 33, 85 |
| IT and digital services | 10-14% | 30, 48, 72 |
| Transport and logistics | 8-10% | 34, 60, 63 |
| Defense and security | 6-8% | 35, 50 (defense subsectors) |
| Energy and utilities | 5-7% | 09, 31, 65 |
| Professional and business services | 4-6% | 79 |
| Environmental services | 3-4% | 90 |
| Food and agriculture | 2-3% | 03, 15 |
| Other | 5-8% | Various |
These shares are approximate and vary by year, but the ranking has been remarkably stable over the past decade. Construction dominates, healthcare holds second place, and IT has been steadily climbing from fifth to third position.
Construction and public works: the heavyweight
Construction consistently accounts for the largest share of EU procurement spending by value. This is driven by the sheer scale of individual contracts — a highway construction project or hospital building easily reaches hundreds of millions of euros, pulling the sectoral total upward.
What drives construction spending
Infrastructure investment. The EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), Cohesion Fund, and Connecting Europe Facility channel billions into transport infrastructure, energy networks, and public buildings. Countries like Romania, Poland, and Greece have seen particularly sharp increases in construction procurement volumes as EU-funded projects move into execution.
Green transition. Energy efficiency retrofitting of public buildings, renewable energy installations, and sustainable urban infrastructure generate substantial procurement volumes. The EU's Renovation Wave strategy alone targets the renovation of 35 million buildings by 2030, with public buildings leading the way.
Aging infrastructure. Bridge repairs, water system replacements, road resurfacing, and rail modernization represent a massive maintenance backlog across Western European countries — Germany alone estimates its infrastructure maintenance gap at over EUR 150 billion. See our construction procurement guide for strategies in this sector.
Contract characteristics
Construction procurement tends toward large lot sizes, long contract durations, and complex qualification requirements. Framework agreements for multi-year maintenance programs are common. The sector has relatively low cross-border participation rates — most construction contracts are won by domestic firms, with cross-border awards accounting for less than 3% of total construction procurement value.
For SMEs, lot division in construction procurement has increased following the 2014 directives' encouragement to break large contracts into lots. However, many major infrastructure contracts remain consolidated, requiring financial and technical capacity that excludes smaller firms.
Healthcare and pharmaceuticals: volume meets urgency
Healthcare procurement ranks second by value and features some of the most dynamic market conditions in European procurement.
Spending components
Healthcare procurement spans several distinct categories:
- Medical devices and equipment (CPV 33): Diagnostic imaging, surgical instruments, laboratory equipment, patient monitoring systems
- Pharmaceuticals (CPV 33600000): Medicines, vaccines, blood products
- Healthcare services (CPV 85): Hospital management, ambulance services, specialized medical services
- Hospital construction and renovation (CPV 45215): Purpose-built healthcare facilities
Post-pandemic restructuring
The procurement patterns established during COVID-19 have become structural. European healthcare systems now maintain larger strategic reserves of personal protective equipment, diagnostic supplies, and critical medicines. Joint procurement mechanisms — pioneered for vaccine acquisition — have been extended to other categories.
Several trends define healthcare procurement in 2025-2026:
Centralization. National and regional centralized purchasing bodies handle an increasing share of healthcare procurement, aggregating demand to negotiate better pricing. In France, UGAP and the hospital purchasing groups (GHT) centralize major medical equipment procurement. In Germany, procurement cooperatives serve clusters of hospitals.
Digital health. Electronic health records, telemedicine platforms, hospital information systems, and health data infrastructure represent a growing subsector at the intersection of healthcare and IT procurement.
Sustainability requirements. Healthcare procurement increasingly includes environmental criteria — from single-use plastics reduction to energy-efficient medical equipment specifications.
IT and digital services: the growth engine
IT procurement is the fastest-growing major sector in European public procurement, driven by digital transformation programs across all levels of government.
Growth trajectory
IT-related procurement (combining CPV Divisions 30, 48, and 72) has grown approximately 12-15% annually by value since 2020. This growth rate significantly outpaces the overall procurement market expansion of 3-5% per year.
Key spending categories
Cloud infrastructure and services. Government cloud migration programs generate procurement for cloud hosting, platform-as-a-service, software-as-a-service, and cloud consulting. France's "Cloud de Confiance" doctrine and Germany's sovereign cloud strategy shape market access rules for this subsector.
Cybersecurity. Following the NIS2 Directive's implementation requirements, cybersecurity procurement has surged across member states. Network security, identity management, security operations centers, and incident response services represent a growing share of IT procurement.
Data and analytics. Data platforms, business intelligence tools, artificial intelligence applications, and data governance solutions are emerging procurement categories. The EU's AI Act creates new requirements — and new procurement needs — for AI systems used in public administration.
Legacy system modernization. Replacing aging government IT systems remains a multi-billion-euro category. Tax systems, social security platforms, customs systems, and judicial case management systems across the EU represent decades of accumulated technical debt being addressed through procurement.
Software development. Agile development services, custom application development, and system integration contracts account for a substantial share of IT procurement. Framework agreements for development teams are common across larger government entities.
Market dynamics
IT procurement differs from construction in several important ways. Cross-border participation is higher — approximately 8-10% of above-threshold IT contracts by value are awarded to non-domestic suppliers, compared to under 3% for construction. Contract sizes are more varied, with a broader range from small application development projects to multi-hundred-million-euro system integration programs.
The sector also features greater concentration among large system integrators for major contracts, while simultaneously offering more opportunities for specialized SMEs in niche technology areas.
Transport and logistics: infrastructure meets operations
Transport procurement combines capital-intensive infrastructure projects with ongoing operational services.
Infrastructure investment
Rail modernization, airport expansion, port development, and urban transit systems generate large-value procurement across the EU. The Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) alone channels billions into cross-border transport infrastructure, with procurement volumes concentrated in corridor countries.
Fleet procurement
The transition to zero-emission public transport drives significant procurement volumes. Electric bus fleets, hydrogen-powered trains, and associated charging and fueling infrastructure represent a multi-year procurement pipeline across virtually all EU member states. By 2025, most urban transit authorities have either completed or initiated fleet electrification procurement.
Logistics and operational services
Public logistics — postal services, municipal waste collection logistics, military logistics — generate steady procurement volumes. The sector increasingly overlaps with IT procurement as transport management systems, fleet telematics, and logistics optimization platforms become standard procurement items.
Defense and security: growing but opaque
Defense procurement presents unique analytical challenges because significant portions of spending are exempt from standard EU procurement rules under Article 346 TFEU (essential security interests).
Visible vs. invisible spending
Published defense procurement on TED represents only a fraction of total European defense spending. The European Defence Fund, PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation) projects, and national defense acquisition programs generate substantial procurement volumes that are not fully captured in standard procurement databases.
What is visible shows clear trends: increased spending on cybersecurity, drone systems, satellite communications, and dual-use technologies. The European Defence Industrial Strategy published in 2024 explicitly aims to increase intra-EU defense procurement, with a target of 50% of defense equipment spending within Europe by 2030.
Growth trajectory
European defense spending has increased sharply since 2022, with most NATO members moving toward or exceeding the 2% of GDP target. This translates into growing defense procurement volumes — though much of this growth flows through national defense acquisition agencies rather than standard procurement channels.
Energy and utilities: transition-driven demand
Energy procurement is being reshaped by the green transition. Traditional fossil fuel procurement is declining while renewable energy installations, grid modernization, energy storage, and energy efficiency services are growing rapidly.
Key procurement categories
- Renewable energy installations: Solar parks, wind farms, and associated grid connections for public buildings and infrastructure
- Grid modernization: Smart grid technologies, distribution network upgrades, and cross-border interconnectors
- Energy efficiency services: Energy performance contracting for public buildings, LED lighting upgrades, building management systems
- Electric vehicle charging: Public charging infrastructure procurement has grown significantly as governments build out national networks
Regulatory drivers
The EU's Fit for 55 package, the Energy Efficiency Directive recast, and the Renewable Energy Directive create procurement obligations that drive spending. Public bodies are increasingly required to meet energy performance standards in their own buildings and operations, generating procurement demand for efficiency services and renewable energy.
Emerging trends across sectors
Several cross-cutting trends are reshaping procurement spending patterns across all sectors.
Green and sustainable procurement
Environmental criteria are becoming standard across sectors, not just energy. Construction contracts routinely include lifecycle carbon assessments. IT procurement increasingly specifies energy-efficient hardware and sustainable data center operations. Healthcare procurement addresses single-use plastics and pharmaceutical waste. The EU's proposed Green Public Procurement criteria provide sector-specific guidance that contracting authorities are increasingly adopting.
Strategic autonomy and reshoring
Following supply chain disruptions, EU procurement increasingly favors European production capacity for critical goods — semiconductors, active pharmaceutical ingredients, battery cells, and rare earth processing. This trend creates opportunities for European manufacturers and complicates access for non-EU suppliers in strategic sectors.
Framework agreements and dynamic purchasing systems
Across all sectors, the share of procurement conducted through framework agreements and dynamic purchasing systems continues to grow. These mechanisms aggregate demand, reduce per-procurement transaction costs, and create recurring revenue opportunities for pre-qualified suppliers — but also raise barriers for new market entrants who must qualify for the framework before accessing individual call-offs.
Innovation procurement
Pre-commercial procurement and innovation partnerships are growing, though from a small base. The EU's Horizon Europe program funds innovation procurement across sectors, and several member states have established dedicated innovation procurement programs. IT, healthcare, and energy are the primary sectors for innovation procurement activity.
Implications for B2G companies
Understanding sectoral spending patterns should inform market entry, resource allocation, and competitive strategy.
Follow the volume. Construction, healthcare, and IT represent over 60% of total above-threshold EU procurement spending. Companies in these sectors have the largest addressable market. Companies in niche sectors should evaluate whether adjacent procurement categories offer expansion potential.
Follow the growth. IT procurement's 12-15% annual growth rate makes it the most dynamic sector. Energy transition procurement is growing at similar rates but from a smaller base. Healthcare procurement growth, while slower, is structurally supported by demographic trends and digital health investment.
Understand sector-specific dynamics. Cross-border participation, SME access, contract size distribution, and framework agreement prevalence vary dramatically across sectors. An IT company's expansion strategy should look very different from a construction firm's.
Watch the policy signals. EU policy frameworks — Green Deal, Digital Decade, European Defence Industrial Strategy — translate directly into procurement spending. Companies that align their capabilities with policy priorities position themselves for growth.
How Duke maps sector spending
Duke's procurement intelligence platform classifies opportunities using CPV-based sector mapping, enabling companies to track spending patterns, identify trends, and benchmark their market position. The platform's sector analysis tools show procurement volume, growth rates, and competitive landscape data at the sector, country, and buyer level.
By combining structured CPV data with natural language analysis of contract descriptions, Duke identifies opportunities that fall within a company's sector focus — even when contracting authorities use non-standard classification. This cross-referencing ensures that companies monitoring EU procurement capture the full scope of relevant opportunities, not just those with exact CPV code matches.
Conclusion
EU public procurement spending is not evenly distributed across sectors. Construction dominates by value, healthcare provides volume and urgency, and IT delivers the highest growth rates. Defense is growing but remains partially opaque. Energy procurement is being fundamentally reshaped by the green transition.
For B2G companies, these patterns should drive strategic decisions about which markets to prioritize, which capabilities to develop, and which procurement channels to monitor. The companies that succeed in European procurement are those that understand not just where the money is today, but where it is moving.
The data tells a clear story: digital, green, and health are the growth vectors. Companies aligned with these trends will find the most — and the fastest-growing — procurement opportunities across Europe.
Related Resources
- IT Procurement in Europe -- explore the fastest-growing sector
- Construction sector page -- the largest sector by value
- European Procurement Market Size 2026 -- the aggregate view
- Energy Procurement and the Green Transition -- renewable energy opportunities
- State of EU Procurement 2026 -- full market intelligence
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