Tuesday 22^nd April, 2014

The Council of the European Union has approved a directive to provide a common interoperable standard for Electronic invoicing in public procurement.

The directive will help remove compatibility problems of all the different e-invoicing systems in various member states, especially for SMEs.

According to the EU Council, while most member states provide an environment for electronic publication of procurement, supply of tender conditions and offers of suppliers, the uptake of e-invoicing across Europe is very low, accounting for only 4 to 15% of all invoices.

The business sector welcomed the initiative and acknowledged that this would significantly lower costs for economic operators participating in cross-border public procurement, including costs stemming from multiple e-invoicing standards and systems.

Ιt is expected that the wide use of e-invoicing in public tenders across the EU will generate savings of funds allocated for public procurement of up to 2.3 € billion a year.

The directive will need to be adopted within 36 months after coming into force.