European Commission issues draft Directive on e-procurement

The European Commission has proposed a draft directive on e-invoicing in public procurement, together with its vision for the full digitisation of the public procurement process.

It said e-invoicing would be an important step towards paperless public administration in Europe, and offers potential for significant economic and environmental benefits, with savings of up to €2.3bn.

Commissioner for internal market and services Michel Barnier said: “Ensuring that public administrations in the EU are modern and efficient is a priority for the European Commission. Switching to e-procurement, and particularly to e-invoicing, can bring significant savings and make life easier both for the governments and for the thousands of businesses active in the internal market.”

Individual invoice costs could fall from €30-50 to €1 if done on a paperless basis, he added.

The draft directive proposes a European e-invoicing standard to improve interoperability between different, mainly national, e-invoicing systems.

It aims to eliminate legal uncertainty, excessive complexity, and additional operating costs for those who have to use different electronic invoices across the member states.

The commission hopes to see the eventual digitisation of the public procurement process by: making e-invoicing the rule rather than the exception in public procurement; taking forward standardisation work; devising national strategies for end-to-end e-procurement; sharing best practice.