A WEBSITE carrying details of new European business opportunities totaling more than £125.5m a day has been launched by Business Link Country Durham.

Europeantenders.com is an extension of the Tenders Electronic Daily service that has been running for the last three years. The new website will carry details of hundreds of tenders from Government bodies, health care organisations, utilities and local authorities in 15 European countries, including the UK.

It will be of particular interest to smaller companies as it is unique in featuring lower value tenders and, for the first time, will provide 24-hour east access to this information. The site also offers an e-mail alert facility which will inform businesses about relevant opportunities, avoiding the need to spend hours online surfing the web.

Tony Thompson, purchasing officer for Durham County Council, one of the first local authorities to sign up to the website, said: "It is an additional outlet we can use to encourage companies to tender for contracts, particularly ones where the values are less than the EC thresholds.

Mike Hutton of Business Link County Durham said: "We wanted to add value to our website service so we are carrying details of the lower value tenders that are not subject to European legislation as well. The value of these contracts ranges from thousands to millions of pounds."