Register Now - How eInvoicing is Connecting Europe: Building a Digital Single Market
On 29 May 2018, the European Commission is organising an event around B2G eInvoicing, its legal mandate in the EU and the CEF eInvoicing services available to public and private entities to comply with the Directive 2014/55/EU. This event happens in the context of the legal deadline (i.e. by 18 April 2019 (extendable for one year for certain actors)) for Member States' public entities to implement the European Standard on eInvoicing.
The objective of this event is to bring together eInvoicing policy makers and technical implementers to discuss Member States' experiences in implementing eInvoicing in light of the publication of the European Standard on eInvoicing. The event participants will learn about the latest developments around the implementation of the Directive 2014/55/EU and case studies of eInvoicing implementation.
This event will demonstrate how eInvoicing can help build a successful Digital Single Market benefiting both the public and private sectors. It will also address how eInvoicing can generate cross-border services and other benefits to citizens, businesses and public administrations. Participation to this event will be open to everyone interested in eInvoicing to discuss B2G eInvoicing implementation from a policy and technical perspective. This event will also address the broader policy context linking eInvoicing with the Connecting Europe Facility.
Context
Directive 2014/55/EU calls for the creation of a European standard on eInvoicing in public procurement preventing the continued proliferation of non-interoperable standards and syntaxes in the Member States.
This set the clock ticking for the implementation of the Directive by Member States, with the legal deadline of 18 April 2019 (extendable for contracting authorities and entities which are not central government authorities).
On 17 October 2017, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) – mandated to create the European standard – published a reference to the standard in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).
Goals
With one year to go, this event will help you have the clearest understanding of what actions must be taken before the deadline, and what support is available to you.
This event will bring together eInvoicing policy makers and technical implementers to discuss the experiences, needs and obligations of Member States further to the publication of the European Standard on eInvoicing.
Participants will learn about:
- Case studies from implementation at national level
- Challenges and next steps for the European Standard on eInvoicing
- CEF support available to public and private entities
This event will allow the participants to discuss, comment and make suggestions on the next steps to support eInvoicing in the EU.
Support for you
The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) financed eInvoicing Building Block provides an entire free service package to support implementation of both the Directive and, subsequently, the standard.
Experts from the European Commission have already organised on-site Implementation Workshops to explore implementation of the European standard in the Member States. This event is an opportunity to understand how to apply what was learned during these Implementation Workshops (and request tailor-made Workshops if you have not already done so).
CEF eInvoicing: Infographic on Implementation Workshops
CEF eInvoicing Implementation Workshop, Greece 5th-6th December 2017
The European Commission has published a handy infographic providing a convenient overview of Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eInvoicing Implementation Workshops and how to request one.
You are cordially invited to download it and please feel free to share within your network.
18 April 2019 is the deadline for Member States to transpose into national law and implement Directive 2014/55/EU on eInvoicing in public procurement (extendable for for sub-central contracting authorities and entities).
As part of a free service package, provided by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eInvoicing Building Block, you may request an Implementation Workshop in your Member State. These workshops are an opportunity to engage with experts from the European Commission, opening up a dialogue on how to best ensure the implementation of the European standard, promoting cross-border, interoperable eInvoicing in Europe. Of-site trainings and live webinars are also available.
These Implementation Workshops and trainings are open to public entities and policy makers involved in the implementation of the eInvoicing Directive, as well as private sector eInvoicing service providers.
Below you can find the Implementation Workshop Infographic ready to download. Otherwise, you can request a workshop by simply sending us an email!
Unsure what you need to do? The eInvoicing Readiness Checker is another key service provided by CEF eInvoicing. It allows public entities to check their level of readiness to exchange eInvoices in compliance with European (and relevant national) legislation. It also offers service & solution providers an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities in implementing eInvoicing solutions conformant with the European standard.
CEF eSignature: DSS v5.3 RC1 Out Now
European Commission 2018
The European Commission is happy to announce the release of the DSS release candidate (DSS v5.3.RC1).
DSS is an open-source software library for electronic signature creation and validation. It supports the creation and verification of interoperable and secure electronic signatures.
Electronic signing allows for the full digitalisation of business processes, eliminating the time and costs of printing, faxing, mailing, copying, scanning and filing in paper formats which presents many disadvantages.
DSS can be re-used in an IT solution for electronic signatures to ensure that signatures, as well as seals, are created and validated in line with Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions (the eIDAS Regulation) and related standards.
DSS allows for a simplification of the complex details of electronic signatures and enables the protagonist to focus on generating what they want to produce, be that an invoice, a contract, etc. DSS is therefore a powerful lever for governments and businesses to integrate electronic signatures with less effort. It also increases cross-border interoperability and allows for higher levels of trust and confidence on electronic transactions.
The first pre-release version of DSS v5.3 comes with a number of improvements and bug fixes. The main new features include:
- certificate validation as a separate feature in the demo webapp, independently of signature validation;
- content-timestamps generation;
- SHA-3 support;
- non-EU trusted list(s) support;
- integration of the last version of MOCCA;
The release also includes relevant bug-fixes and improvements listed on the DSS release page, accessible via the link below.
Through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the EU Member States and the European Commission support the adoption of electronic signatures in Europe with the CEF eSignature building block. The deployment of solutions based on this building block in a Member State facilitates the mutual recognition and cross-border interoperability of electronic signatures. This means that public administrations and businesses can trust and use e-signatures that are valid and structured in interoperable formats.
CEF eTranslation: European Intellectual Property in your language
European Commission 2018
The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) is reusing the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eTranslation Building Block to deliver multilingual services.
EUIPO uses CEF eTranslation to provide automatic translations for selected decisions accessible through the language acronym of interest (e.g. DE, NL, IT…) listed under “machine translation.” EUIPO is among the 10 largest users of eTranslation currently in terms of requests and pages submitted to the CEF eTranslation platform.
EUIPO is responsible for managing the EU trademark and the registered Community design. It also works with the IP offices of the Member States and international partners to offer a similar registration experience for trademarks and designs across Europe and the world.
The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is the EU’s main instrument for trans-European infrastructures. The goal of CEF eTranslation is to help European and national public administrations exchange information across language barriers in the EU, by providing machine translation capabilities that will enable trans-European digital infrastructures to be multilingual.
To find out more about European Intellectual Property – in your language – see the EUIPO press release.
To see how CEF eTranslation, as well as the other CEF Building Blocks (eDelivery, eID, eInvoicing and eSignature), are Connecting Europe, visit CEF Digital 2018.
You can also receive CEF grant funding, administrated by the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA), to support adoption and reuse of the CEF Building Blocks. CEF eTranslation/Automated Translation grant funding is scheduled to go-live on 2 May 2018.
Release of eIDAS-Node software version 2.0
The European Commission is pleased to announce the release of the eIDAS-Node software version 2.0 on 28 March 2018.
Electronic identification (eID) and electronic Trust Services (eTS) are key enablers for secure cross-border electronic transactions and central building blocks of the Digital Single Market. The Regulation (EU) N°910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market (eIDAS Regulation) is a milestone to provide a predictable regulatory environment to enable secure and seamless electronic interactions between businesses, citizens and public authorities.
The eIDAS Network consists of a number of interconnected eIDAS-Nodes, one per participating country, which can either request or provide cross-border authentication. It is the responsibility of each country to implement their eIDAS-Node.
Release 2.0 of the eIDAS sample implementation for Member States is an all-in-one package for the Java platform. This release is based on version 1.1 of the eIDAS technical specifications and it includes major improvements in the software architecture.
Most notably, the following changes have been introduced:
- There are now two deployment approaches: Standard (independent Specific and Generic applications) and Monolithic (single WAR file);
- Architecture improvements were introduced to enable seamless upgrades of the eIDAS-Node in the future. The MS Specific module has been split into the Specific Proxy Service module and the Specific Connector module;
- Simple Protocol has been defined between the demo Service Provider 2.0 tools and the Specific Connector, and between the Specific Proxy Service and the demo Identity Provider 2.0 tools;
- OpenSAML has been upgraded to version 3.0 in the eIDAS-Node core part;
- A new look and feel has been implemented.
Member States can use this release as a sample implementation for demonstration purposes or they can adapt it as a basis for their own eIDAS scheme.
The testing tools (demo SP and demo IdP), the supplied Specific Part and the Simple Protocol should be used for demo purposes only on your local machine; they should not be deployed in your infrastructure.
With each release, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eID Team strives to improve users' CEF eID experience. Future versions of the eIDAS technical specifications will be updated based on feedback received on this current version.
Connecting Europe: CEF eDelivery supports trans-European multilingualism
European Commission 2018
The European Commission is happy to announce that a Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eDelivery Access Point is in place, supporting the European Language Resources Coordination repository (ELRC-SHARE repository).
This means that language resources are transmitted to the ELRC-SHARE repository in a reliable, secure and trusted way.
The ELRC-SHARE repository is used for documenting, storing, browsing and accessing language resources that are collected through the European Language Resource Coordination.
CEF eDelivery is a network of nodes for digital communications. It has a distributed model where every participant becomes a node using standard transport protocols and security policies. eDelivery therefore helps public administrations to exchange electronic data and documents with other public administrations, businesses and citizens regardless of the respective digital or IT infrastructure in place.
The CEF eDelivery building block is based on the AS4 messaging protocol, defined by the Member States, which is open and free for all, developed by the OASIS standards development organisation. Organisations must install an Access Point, or use a Service Provider, to exchange information with the AS4 messaging protocol.
The European Language Resources Coordination (ELRC) network manages, maintains and coordinates the relevant language resources in all official EU languages (and those of participating EEA countries).
The term language resources refers to sets of language data and descriptions in machine-readable form, including written and spoken corpora, grammars, and terminology databases.
The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is the EU’s main financing instrument for trans-European infrastructures. This includes a Europe-wide digital infrastructure, known as Digital Service Infrastructures (DSI), or Building Blocks. DSI such as CEF eDelivery allow for the creation of trans-European services, including eHealth and eJustice.
The CEF eTranslation Building Block allows trans-European digital services to be multilingual. CEF eTranslation provides a truly pan-European automated translation platform, providing high quality translations in all official EU languages and in various domains. ELRC language resources improve and enrich the CEF eTranslation service.
To discover more about how the CEF Building Blocks are creating multilingual cross-border digital services, visit CEF Digital 2018 now.