MEPs have voted in favour of the creation of the standard at the start of February 2014, following its endorsement by member states in January, and this has currently been ratified by the Council.
A single standard is being introduced to remove compatibility problems between systems. It is claimed a move to e-invoicing could save EUR 2.3 billion annually across the EU, but current use is between 4% to 15% of total invoices.
The European standardization organsations CEN, Cenelec and ETSI are set to develop the standard. Once published, central government are set to have 18 months to implement it, and local and regional contracting authorities are set to have 30 months.
All public sector buyers will be required to carry out their procurement electronically by 2016.
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