New technical assistance contract will design a European service giving SMEs clearer sustainability impact information to meet evolving policy demands.
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The European Commission’s environment directorate is seeking technical assistance to design a new European SME Sustainability Program. The contract will help create a service that gives small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) accessible information on their sustainability impacts, so they can comply more easily with EU policies.
Published on 12th December 2025, the procurement from the European Commission’s Directorate‑General for Environment seeks technical assistance to support the creation of a programme that provides SMEs with accessible impact information to aid compliance with EU policies. In essence, the institution is buying in expertise to translate complex environmental and sustainability obligations into practical guidance for smaller firms.
The service is intended to give SMEs clearer insight into how their activities affect, and are affected by, European policy goals. Rather than expecting small companies to navigate extensive legislation and guidance on their own, the programme is meant to package relevant information in a way that is easier to find, understand and use when making decisions.
While the description stays at a high level, it points towards a structured programme rather than isolated guidance notes. The technical assistance will support decisions on how impact information is gathered, organised and presented so that it becomes usable for SMEs facing new reporting or compliance demands.
The move sits within a wider shift among European public bodies towards buying in sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) expertise. In October 2025, the Instituto para la Competitividad Empresarial de la Junta de Castilla y León launched a consulting contract for SME sustainability plans, covering diagnosis, action planning, training and advice to help local companies design and implement their own sustainability strategies.
In August 2025, Slovak municipal waste company Odvoz a likvidácia odpadu a.s. issued a tender for ESG strategy consulting services, seeking expert support to create a tailored ESG strategy and sustainability report for selected municipal companies. The brief also includes preparing the necessary documentation and software solutions to meet current sustainability standards.
Even large European institutions are turning to external advisers. In September 2025, the European Parliament’s Directorate‑General for Infrastructure and Logistics published a framework for project management assistance in sustainability, spanning feasibility and specialist studies, innovation events, technological monitoring, tool development and advice on sustainability specifications and certifications.
The SME‑focused sustainability programme from the environment directorate mirrors other recent efforts to centralise complex compliance information. On 8th December 2025, the Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments announced plans for an EU sanctions compliance and due diligence helpdesk, a support service for European operators, particularly SMEs, to navigate sanctions rules and sensitive political and economic areas.
At city and regional level, administrations are also commissioning advisory services that sit between regulation and practice. The Ayuntamiento de Madrid is procuring an advisory service for entrepreneurs and SMEs through its One‑Stop Shop for Entrepreneurship, while the Agencia para la Modernización Tecnológica de Galicia is seeking modular consulting services for SMEs on digital technological innovation, from cybersecurity strategies to process digitisation and innovation road‑mapping.
These initiatives differ in subject matter, from sanctions policy and entrepreneurship to digitalisation and sustainability, but they share a common idea: smaller organisations are struggling to keep up with regulatory and technological change, and public authorities are responding by building structured advisory and information services rather than relying solely on written guidance or sporadic workshops.
The sustainability angle is becoming sharper in sector‑specific procurements as well. In October 2025, Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food launched a contract for collecting economic, social and environmental data for the Spanish Network of Agricultural Sustainability, focused on agricultural enterprises. A separate technical assistance contract for a just ecological transition, published in October 2025 by the Instituto para la Transición Justa, seeks analysis of socio‑economic and employment impacts to inform public policies that support communities through decarbonisation.
Together with city‑level ESG initiatives and SME‑oriented consulting frameworks, these projects point to a tightening link between data, diagnostics and policy implementation. For consultants and technical assistance providers, demand is growing not only for high‑level sustainability strategy, but also for the practical work of gathering information, building indicators and turning them into decision‑ready tools.
The Commission is also using technical assistance to advance sustainability goals in partner countries, and those experiences are likely to inform how it shapes support for European SMEs. In June 2025, its Directorate‑General for International Partnerships sought expertise for the promotion of green businesses under the EU‑Honduras Forest Alliance. In July 2025, a further contract for green finance technical assistance in Honduras was launched to strengthen state‑owned development banks so they can promote green finance, improve operational efficiency and attract responsible private investment.
Similar patterns appear elsewhere. In August 2025, the European Union, represented by the Commission on behalf of Togo, initiated a project to support sustainable agro‑industries, spanning governance, market access, agroecology knowledge and stakeholder coordination. On 12th December 2025, development agency Expertise France advertised the EU‑ProGreen technical assistance programme, which focuses on accelerating SMEs and training financial institutions in how to evaluate green projects in the Dominican Republic.
Across these overseas programmes, the common thread is specialised advisory support that links policy ambitions, from forest protection to agro‑industry development, with the practical needs of businesses and financial institutions. The new SME sustainability programme for Europe takes the same basic model and turns it inward, aiming to help domestic firms align with EU rules and expectations.
Industry‑focused initiatives add another layer to this picture. In September 2025, French organisation INNOVATION PLASTURGIE COMPOSITES launched a call to recruit providers to support SMEs participating in the PACTE Industry project on low‑carbon plastics, following the ACT Step‑by‑Step method. The contract foresees tailored, one‑to‑one support for participating companies as they work through emissions‑reduction pathways.
Such programmes underline how difficult it is for smaller manufacturers and service providers to translate broad climate targets into concrete investment and operational decisions. A centralised European SME sustainability service, if well designed, could complement these local and sectoral efforts by providing consistent impact information that sits behind company‑level diagnostics and transition plans.
The contract for technical assistance on the European SME Sustainability Program does not yet spell out the tools, sectors or data sources that will underpin the new service. Those design choices will determine whether the programme becomes a central reference point for SMEs trying to understand their environmental and social impacts, or a more limited support offering.
For now, the procurement confirms three trends: public authorities are investing in long‑term advisory infrastructures; sustainability and ESG expertise is moving from niche to mainstream within those services; and SMEs are increasingly treated as a distinct audience that needs tailored, accessible impact information to comply with evolving EU policies. How the environment directorate’s programme develops will be an important indicator of how far that approach can be scaled across Europe.
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