The European Commission (EC) has presented a draft directive proposing to unify e-invoicing in public procurement in member countries, a measure that would be a step forward in establishing "paperless" administrations in the European Union (EU) .
"The transition to e-procurement and, in particular, e-invoicing, can save significant lives and make life easier for governments and thousands of companies active in the internal market," said the European Commissioner for Internal Market. Michael Barnier, in a statement.
The proposal aims to harmonize electronic invoicing in public procurement at European level to improve interoperability between different national systems.
In addition, the project seeks to "eliminate legal uncertainty, excessive complexity and additional operating costs for economic operators who currently have to use different electronic invoices in the Member States."
The initiative aims to promote the use of electronic invoicing in the European Union, which currently only accounts for between 4 and 15% of invoices exchanged, according to EC data.
“Leaving the paper and moving to fully automated invoicing can reduce the costs of receiving an invoice from the current 50 to 30 euros to 1 euro. This is a remarkable and useful saving in the current economic situation ", stressed Barnier.
The directive was presented alongside a communication for the "full digitization of the public procurement process", an objective that is part of the strategies of the Digital Agenda of the European Union and could save up to to 2.300 billion euros, according to the EC.
The communication emphasizes the importance of making progress at various points to achieve this "paperless" administration, for example by establishing that electronic invoicing becomes "more in order than an exception in public procurement".
The European Commission also calls on countries to develop national strategies on full e-procurement, to promote standardization and to exchange best practices among themselves.
The communication will also serve as a basis for possible future initiatives on further digitization of the public procurement process, the EC added.
