E-invoicing in public procurement

MEP Birgit Collin-Langen
MEP Birgit Collin-Langen

The IMCO Committee has considered the Commission's proposal on electronic invoicing ('e-invoicing') in public procurement. The proposal seeks to establish a common EU-wide standard for e-invoices that all contracting authorities and entities must accept, even though they may continue to use other national standards and systems.

This complemented the package for the modernisation of the EU publicprocurement rules, adopted in plenary in January 2014, which makes use ofe-procurement procedures mandatory by 2018. The proposal is also one of thefirst to apply standardisation regulation 1025/2012/EU.

Public procurement is the process used by government institutions, publicsector organisations and certain undertakings in the utilities sectors to buysupplies, services and public works. Such expenditure is a significant andinfluential component of the economy. The procurement package strengthens therules for electronic procurement, making its use mandatory at the latest 54months after the entry into force of the revised instruments. Moving towardsmore efficient paperless procedures is expected to yield great benefits.However, the modernisation package does not cover the 'post-award' stage ofinvoicing, because it is not procurement-specific.