I congratulate the European
Parliament and the Council on having reached agreement on the draft
directive on e-invoicing in public procurement. This agreement -
endorsed by the Member States today - will contribute to eliminating
barriers to cross-border public procurement. It will also ensure
interoperability between national e-invoicing systems and, ultimately, a
better functioning of the Single Market. I would like to thank the
European Parliament, especially the rapporteur, Birgit Collin-Langen and
the shadow rapporteurs, as well as the Greek and Lithuanian
Presidencies for their work on this file.
Provided that the e-invoices sent
by a company are compliant with the forthcoming European standard on
e-invoicing in public procurement, they will ultimately be accepted by
all public authorities throughout Europe.
E-invoicing is an important step
towards paperless public administration (e-government) in Europe – one
of the priorities of the Digital Agenda - and offers the potential for
significant economic as well as environmental benefits. The adoption of
e-invoicing in public procurement alone across the EU could generate
savings of up to €2.3 billion.
Supporting modern and efficient
public administrations in the EU is a priority for the European
Commission. The new rules will greatly simplify the processing of
e-invoices for both governments and businesses including SMEs. By
agreeing on the establishment of a common EU standard for e-invoicing in
public procurement, interoperable with existing national standards and
ensuring acceptance of e-invoices sent in this standard, we have
prevented the creation of a new barrier to the Single Market and reduced
complexity for all parties involved. This shows that European policies
can be an important driver for simplification. Switching from paper to
fully automated invoicing will significantly cut the costs of receiving
and processing an invoice, and contribute to the fight against fraud.
These are good and useful savings, particularly in the current economic
climate.
Background...
On 26 June 2013, the European Commission proposed a draft Directive on e-invoicing in public procurement (IP/13/608). The main objectives of the new rules are:
To allow interoperability of e-invoices sent across the EU
The directive on electronic
invoicing in public procurement proposes the establishment of a European
e-invoicing standard which is expected to improve interoperability
between different, mainly national, e-invoicing systems.
It aims to eliminate legal
uncertainty, excessive complexity, and additional operating costs for
economic operators who currently have to use different electronic
invoices across the Member States. It will also help boost the uptake of
e-invoicing in Europe which remains very low, accounting for only 4-15%
of all invoices exchanged.
To create benefits for economic operators and contracting authorities
Launching the process for the
creation of a European standard and ensuring that e-invoices sent in
this standard will be accepted EU-wide will provide greater certainty
for economic operators. In fact, this initiative gives assurance to
enterprises that the initial investment in e-invoicing will produce
e-invoices accepted by all public authorities across the EU – provided
that the e-invoices sent by the economic operator are compliant with the
forthcoming European standard. At the same time, the creation of the
e-invoicing standard will allow contracting authorities to receive
e-invoices from operators from any EU country, as long as they are
compatible with European standard. This will result in greater
simplification for both contracting authorities economic operators which
will not have to invest in multiple e-invoicing solutions to be able to
send or receive e-invoices sent from other EU Member States.
According to studies carried out
by the Member States, the potential savings are of several orders of
magnitude larger than the implementation costs and the initial
investment can be amortised within a very short period of time (1 to 2
years maximum, in many cases even shorter).
To progress on the transition to end-to-end procurement
Agreeing on the
development of a European standard for e-invoicing will contribute to
the digitisation of another step of the public procurement procedure.
For instance, the introduction of e-invoicing can contribute to the
automation of other phases of the public procurement procedure such as
e-archiving.
The digitisation of
public procurement, while contributing to the reduction of public
procurement expenditure, also fosters innovation and cross-border public
procurement. The transition to end-to-end e-procurement can
generate all these benefits and more: it can result in significant
savings and simplification for market actors, and initiate structural
re-thinking of certain areas of public administration. It can also
facilitate SME participation in public procurement by reducing
administrative burden, by increasing transparency over business
opportunities, and by lowering participation costs.
