PUBLIC PROCUREMENT : E-INVOICING: IMCO GREEN-LIGHTS THREE-WAY AGREEMENT.

• Position: Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Electronic invoicing in public procurement will become an obligation for public authorities in 2015. Members of the European Parliament's Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) validated (37 for, one against), on 11 February, the provisional agreement reached in three-way talks, on 21 January (see Europolitics 4791 and 4795). "In just four months, we managed to reach an agreement on the directive on e-invoicing in public procurement. Key points for us were guaranteeing the establishment of an effective, user-friendly and affordable standard and giving member states enough time for implementation," commented rapporteur Birgit Collin-Langen (EPP, Germany).

For now, e-invoicing in the EU is very limited, representing only 4% to 15% of all invoices, depending on the member state. This results from the coexistence of mostly national technical standards and legal requirements that are not interoperable. Pressed by Parliament in April 2012 and then by the European Council, the European Commission proposed, in June 2013, to set up a European e-invoicing standard to replace the current patchwork, with the European Standardisation Committee (CEN) supervising the process. It also suggested the mandatory use of e-invoicing in public procurement.

In the Collin-Langen report, adopted on 17 December 2013, Parliament put greater emphasis than the Commission or Council on the stages of the directive's entry into...