CEF eInvoicing: Recording Published - Interactive Webinar #10: CIUS including PEPPOL CIUS
European Commission 2018
In May 2018, the European Commission launched a second round of live webinars exploring electronic invoicing (eInvoicing) respecting the recently published European standard.
On Tuesday 19 June, an interactive webinar provided participants with information on the CIUS (Core Invoice Usage Specifications), including the PEPPOL CIUS.
Participants at this webinar had an opportunity to learn about:
- The CIUS concept - its meaning, usage, compliance and documentation
- PEPPOL CIUS - benefits, challenges and country-specific requirements
Upcoming Webinars
This webinar was part of a series that will cover the most relevant eInvoicing topics. Follow us to receive the latest updates on CEF eInvoicing and upcoming events.
We invite you to vote on your preferred topics to be addressed in the upcoming webinars. You can also add topics to the list below.
Background and CIUS Concept
European legislation (Directive 2014/55/EU on eInvoicing in public procurement) calls for a European standard on eInvoicing to prevent the proliferation of differing eInvoices in the Single Market. Working at a syntax level, the European standard helps increase cross-border interoperability and so support business and administration in Europe.
The European standard on electronic invoicing enables cross-border, interoperable eInvoicing in Europe. To this end, it introduces the concept of a "core invoice" – a limited, but sufficient, and commonly used set of information elements supporting generally applicable invoice-related functionalities. Still, not every contracting authority needs (or may be allowed to use) all elements available in the core invoice. To support this, the European standard defines the concept of the Core Invoice Usage Specification (CIUS), which allows to restrict the core invoice.
While a CIUS is a useful and compliant way to support tailored implementations needed from sector or national practices, the overarching objectives of interoperability and minimisation of costs established by Directive 2014/55 must be respected. Understanding the concept of CIUS, and especially if and how to use it, is therefore fundamental to understand how to implement the European standard.
CEF eInvoicing
The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eInvoicing building block serves to support public administrations in complying with Directive 2014/55/EU, and helps solution providers adapt their services accordingly. To do so, CEF eInvoicing makes the following services available:
- eInvoicing Service Desk
- eInvoicing on-site and remote Trainings
- eInvoicing Readiness Checker
- eInvoicing Conformance Testing
Finally, in 2018 CEF makes an indicative €5 million in grant funding available to support the adoption of solutions compliant with the European standard on eInvoicing. Apply now for eInvoicing grants, the call closes on 18 September 2018.
European Commission Opens Public Consultation to help evaluate VAT Invoicing Rules
European Commisison, 2018
On 13 June 2018, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the evaluation of VAT invoicing rules. Submissions are welcome until 20 September 2018.
The scope of the consultation is to collect data and evidence needed to evaluate the invoicing rules introduced by the Second Invoicing Directive (Directive 2010/45/EU).
In particular, the data gathered through the consultation should allow identification and quantification of the regulatory costs, benefits, savings and burden reduction and simplification potential for businesses generated by the invoicing rules. Special focus will be on electronic invoicing (eInvoicing) and data gathered through the consultation should allow to measure and better understand the uptake of eInvoicing in the EU.
The questionnaire takes about 30 minutes to complete.
Translations of the questionnaire into Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish will be available subsequently.
The European Commission supports eInvoicing in Europe through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Building Block. CEF is the EU’s main financing instrument for trans-European infrastructure. In 2018, €5 million in grant funding is available via CEF to support compliant eInvoicing, the deadline for applications being 18 September 2018.
eInvoicing policy EMSFeI guidance on implementation for EU public administrations published
European Commission, 2018
In June 2018, the European Multi-Stakeholder Forum on eInvoicing (EMSFeI) adopted a guidance paper supporting public administrations with the adoption of electronic invoicing (eInvoicing) in public procurement. The European Commission encourages relevant stakeholders to make the best use of - and share - this document.
The guidance paper is essential reading for decision-makers who have responsibility for eInvoicing in all public sector organisations throughout Europe. Specifically, it supports public administrations in both the transposition of Directive 2014/55/EU (on eInvoicing in public procurement) into national law and the implementation of a European standard on eInvoicing.What answers and other useful information can you can find in this document? This comprehensive document contains the essential information to accompany the concrete implementation of your eInvocing policy.
The guidance paper provides a checklist for the transposition and general implementation of the Directive 2014/55/EU, which sets out a legal deadline of 18 April 2019.
- Drivers for implementing eInvoicing: What to keep in mind when devising a national strategy
- National policy-making process and coherence with EU law: How to ensure a smooth transition into national law
- eInvoicing infrastructure and technical implementation: Setting eInvoicing infrastructure on the ground
- On-boarding and communication: What should you consider to support the on-boarding of suppliers
- Success factors and pitfalls: Tips & tricks plus what to avoid
- Sustaining eInvoicing beyond the transposition: Make it last and reap the benefits long-term
Download PDF
The guidance paper also highlights the tools, services, support and information (such as country factsheets) provided as part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eInvoicing Building Block. A key support mechanism for the Member States in implementing Directive 2014/55/EU. CEF is the EU’s main financing instrument for trans-European infrastructure. In 2018, €5 million in grant funding is available via CEF to support compliant eInvoicing. The deadline for applications is 18 September 2018.
Did you know? European legislation (Directive 2014/55/EU) calls for a European standard on eInvoicing in public procurement to prevent the proliferation of different formats of eInvoices in the Single Market.
The EMSFeI brings together public and private sector representatives from EU Member States, as well as other experts, on a regular basis to discuss and make recommendations to the community of eInvocing stakeholders and to the European Commission on how to promote and implement eInvoicing.
The guidance paper was issued during the event 'How eInvoicing is Connecting Europe: Building a Digital Single Market'. The event focused on the practical implementation of B2G eInvoicing in Europe in the context of Directive 2014/55/EU. You can download the presentations, see the recording and better understand the future of eInvoicing in Europe here.
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Connecting Europe Facility Building Blocks Presented at eDelivery Day in Sweden
On 7 June 2018, the Swedish National Financial Management Authority (ESV) organised a one-day event looking at the adoption of eDelivery in Sweden. This included a presentation on the value of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Building Blocks, with a specific focus on CEF eDelivery.
To ensure Swedish authorities are able to exchange data in the most reliable and secure way, the ESV is piloting the use of eDelivery for data-exchange between government departments and services (G2G). The implementation of eDelivery at the national level also facilities cross-border exchange.
Participants shared knowledge about what eDelivery is, how it works and what it can help with. Participants also received an update on what is happening within the EU and in various national projects.
Sweden has made significant progress in the deployment of eDelivery infrastructure at the creation of a vibrant digital ecosystem around it.
eDelivery is a network of nodes for digital communications based on a distributed model where every participant becomes a node using standard transport protocols and security policies. The Building Block can be used internationally, nationally and locally.
The CEF eDelivery solution is based on a distributed model called the “4-corner model”. In this model, the back-end systems of the users don’t exchange data directly with each other but do this through Access Points. These Access Points are conformant to the same technical specifications and therefore capable of communicating with each other.
CEF is the EU’s main financing instrument for cross-border infrastructure, including Digital Service Infrastructures such as the CEF Building Blocks. The Building Blocks promote the adoption of the common open standards and technical specifications, in different sectors, for basic and common functionalities of any sectorial project or platform. Currently, there are five building blocks: eTranslation, eInvoicing, eID, eSignature and eDelivery.
The ESV pilots support the exchange of data in several contexts.
The output project ESV and the National Audit Office, in cooperation with various authorities, conducted a pilot project to standardise financial data from authorities to the Office of the Auditor General. Secure Digital Communication (SDK) is a project run by SKL / Inera, together with several agencies. The aim is to send information between organisations (public and private) in a simple and secure way. Project leader Martin Völcker and integrator Oskar Glanzmann also provided a more in-depth description of the components of eDelivery and its configuration and route selection.
Nils Fjelkegård, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Finance, gave the Government Chancellor's view of secure message transmission and access to basic data. Nils Fjelkegaard ellaborated on the Agency for Digital Administration's future mission to create a strategy for common basic data and an effective information exchange within the public sector.
In 2018, e-Boks chose to integrate CEF eDelivery and the AS4 message exchange protocol as a standard they will use to deliver secure messages to almost 15 million users, ranging from corporate and public authorities to private citizens. Christian Vindinge Rasmussen, explained why e-Box has made this decision and what they expect to benefit from this.
Hans Ekståhl from the Swedish Companies Registration Office told participants about Sweden's participation in the The Only Once Principal (TOOP) project. TOOP is a strategic project for the European Commission, where the architecture is expected to be reused in more areas.
Finally, Björn Hesthamar from PTS explained the agency's work with trusted services and the current status in Sweden.
Through CEF, the European Commission supports the implementation of eDelivery architecture throughout Europe. Thanks to the CEF eDelivery service offering, the Commission has supported Swedish authorities in their goal of ensuring reliable, secure data exchange both at the national level and with other Member States or partners.
CEF grant funding is also available to support the adoption of eDelivery in your organisation. CEF provides € 0.5 million and funding covers up to 75% of the costs of implementation. The deadline for applications is 18 September 2018.
View the slides:
CEF eDelivery: Component Offering Document for SML, SMP and Access Points available now
European Commission, 2018
The European Commission is happy to announce the publication of Component Offering Description (COD) documents for key components of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eDelivery Building Block.
CEF is the EU’s main financing instrument for trans-European digital infrastructure. CEF Building Blocks, such as eDelivery, are fundamental components of a Digital Single Market. Their reuse saves organisations:
- Costs: common services and proven technology
- Time: customisable solutions built on common standards
- Resources: via the allocation and mobility of human resources (expertise pools)
CEF eDelivery is a network of nodes for digital communications, based on a distributed model where every participant becomes a node using standard transport protocols and security policies. CEF eDelivery is based on the AS4 messaging protocol.
The CEF eDelivery Access Point (AP) implements a standardised message exchange protocol that ensures interoperable, secure and reliable data exchange.
The CEF eDelivery Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) enables the participants of an eDelivery Messaging Infrastructure to dynamically discover each other's capabilities (legal, organisational, and technical). For this to happen, each participant must publish its capabilities and settings in a Service Metadata Processor (SMP).
The CEF eDelivery Service Metadata Locator (SML) enables Access Points to dynamically discover the IP address of the destination Access Point. Instead of looking at a static list of IP addresses, the Access Point consults a Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) where information about every participant in the document/ data exchange network is kept up to date, including the IP addresses of their Access Point.
The Component Offering Documents describe the CEF eDelivery messaging infrastructure and its dynamic discovery model, the functional and technical specifications of the AP, SML and SMP components and their usage.
CEF grant funding is also available to support the adoption of eDelivery in your organisation. CEF provides € 0.5 million and funding covers up to 75% of the costs of implementation. The deadline for applications is 18 September 2018.
Digital Services: Supporting citizens, businesses and administrations in Europe
The Digital Single Market aims to overcome the challenges of digitalisation by creating the right environment for digital networks and services to flourish. The European Commission works to achieve a Digital Single Market in Europe through a combination of leading-edge legislation, guidelines and programmes ensuring the freedoms and protections of the EU’s Single Market are harnessed for the digital age.
During the Digital Assembly 2018, the European Commission is presenting eGovernment and Trust, Interoperability solutions for public administrations, businesses and citizens (ISA² Programme) and trans-European Digital Service Infrastructures (the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Building Blocks).
eGovernment and trust advances the quality and innovation of public administrations and accelerates the large-scale public sector and private sector use of trusted identification and trust services. This ensures that citizens and businesses can use their own national electronic identification schemes (eIDs) to access public services in other EU countries where eIDs are available, as provided for by Regulation (EU) N°910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market (commonly known as the eIDAS Regulation). With the eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020, public administrations at local, regional and national level and public institutions are supported to be open, efficient and inclusive.
The ISA² programme is currently boosting interoperability in Europe, working in the implementation of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) in the European Union and monitoring the process at Member State level through the National Interoperability Framework Observatory (NIFO). ISA² also supports the development of digital solutions (so far 24 interoperable and open source solutions) that enable public administrations, businesses and citizens in Europe to benefit from interoperable cross-border and cross-sector public services.
The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is the EUs main financing instrument for trans-European infrastructure. CEF funds a set of generic and reusable Digital Service Infrastructures (DSI), also known as Building Blocks. The basis for the CEF Building Blocks are interoperability agreements between European Union member states. Common standards supported by services and grant funding, connecting Europe.
The Digital Assembly is a major annual forum that gathers more than 1,000 stakeholders and high-level policymakers to debate the EU digital policy and the implications of recent technological developments. The European Commission warmly invites all interested stakeholders attending to visit the stand 'Digital Services: Supporting citizens, businesses and administrations in Europe' and see how they can benefit from a connected Digital Single Market.
Summary: How eInvoicing is Connecting Europe: Building a Digital Single Market
European Commission, 2018
On 29 May 2018, the European Commission held the event 'How eInvoicing is Connecting Europe: Building a Digital Single Market'.
The event focused on the practical implementation of B2G eInvoicing in Europe in the context of Directive 2014/55/EU (on electronic invoicing in public procurement), which stipulated the definition of a common European standard on eInvoicing at semantic level (the core information contained in the eInvoice) as well as a list of syntaxes (the format or language used for transmission of the eInvoice).
As a result of this Directive, the new European standard on eInvoicing was published in October 2017. All national or central public administrations and entities must comply with the Directive by 18 April 2019, by being able to receive invoices electronically that conform with the standard. This deadline is extendable by one year for sub-national and sub-centralised public entities. The objective of the European standard on eInvoicing is to prevent the proliferation of different eInvoice formats and increase cross-border interoperability. The EU's wider objective is to contribute to innovation and modernisation of business processes by facilitating end-to-end digital public procurement in the context of the Digital Single Market.
The European Commission's Marzena Rogalska and Nikita Stampa provided a comprehensive introduction to the planned next steps in the implementation of the European standard on eInvoicing, highlighting what was achieved so far in the process. They further emphasised the benefits of eInvoicing in diverse segments of the economy and for different stakeholders, along with the policy challenges that lay ahead.
The event presented the output of the work undertaken by the European Multi-Stakeholder Forum on eInvoicing (EMSFEI) and the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) in laying the groundwork to prepare and implement the European standard. The outputs of the three main EMSFEI working groups are available through the following links: Sub-group 1 (Implementation guidance), Sub-group 2 (CIUS use), Sub-group 3 (Additional requirements).
In addition, the event showcased the services of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eInvoicing Building Block, available to public and private entities to support their activities to comply with the standard and participants were able to learn about the CEF grant funding opportunities of up to €5 million, in support of the adoption of compliant eInvoicing solutions by both public and private entities. This CEF funding covers up to 75% of the costs of implementation. The deadline for applications is 18 September 2018.
During panel discussions, representatives from the private and public sectors presented their countries’ experiences with the implementation of the eInvoicing Directive, providing the audience with tested methods on how to apply the European standard, and eventually, on how to go 'beyond' the scope of the Directive. Another panel discussion focused on the benefits of the CEF eInvoicing implementation workshops and how they contribute to the implementation of the Directive in a national context.
Participants and members of the eInvoicing community are invited to maintain the discussion online, so please check for any updates on the eInvoicing User Community and look out for potential webinars or other activities contributing to the implementation of the Directive.
A full recording of the event is available here and all presentations are on the event page for your information and re-use.
Commission launches Consultation on the "Pull" Profile Enhancement of the eDelivery AS4 profile
The consultation was launched on 05 Jun 2018
The eDelivery AS4 Common Profile mandates support for the “Push” ebMS3 MEP Transport Channel Binding, as it is sufficient for and covers the requirements of the vast majority of its users. This eDelivery AS4 "Pull" Feature Profile Enhancement specifies an optional alternative use of the “Pull” Transport Channel Binding. Selection of "Push" or "Pull" is configured in the P-Mode for the message exchange.
The European Commission intends to include this optional "Pull" Profile Enhancement in the eDelivery AS4 profile. Before doing so, the Commission would like to hear any comments prior to finalising the publication.
The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eDelivery is a network of nodes for digital communications. It is based on a distributed model where every participant becomes a node using standard transport protocols and security policies. It helps public administrations to exchange electronic data and documents with other public administrations, businesses and citizens, in an interoperable, secure, reliable and trusted way.
Support for the AS4 "Pull" Feature has been requested by public administrations in the Member States in, among others, the taxation, customs and energy policy domains. The rationale for "Pull" for these users relates to networking, security and operational constraints in their organisations that make the use of "Push" messaging difficult or even impossible.
CEF eDelivery: Release of the New versions of AS4, BDXL, ebCore Party Id Type and SMP specifications
CEF eDelivery: New versions of AS4, BDXL, ebCore Party Id Type and SMP specifications
European Commission, 2018
The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eDelivery team is happy to announce new versions of eDelivery specifications for AS4, BDXL, ebCore Party Id Type and SMP.
CEF eDelivery helps public administrations to exchange electronic data and documents with other public administrations, businesses and citizens, in an interoperable, secure, reliable and trusted way. The CEF eDelivery solution is based on a distributed model called the “4-corner model”. In this model, the back-end systems of the users don’t exchange data directly with each other but do this through Access Points. These Access Points are conformant to the same technical specifications and therefore capable of communicating with each other.
Background and Context
The main driver for the updates to the eDelivery specifications is the modularisation of the AS4 profile. This initiative was proposed in July 2017, and aimed to align the profile with other AS4 initiatives internationally and to make it easier to manage and extend. A modular structure increases reusability of the specifications in diverse domains, and lowers the implementation burden for the many users that only need a small subset of the existing functionality. It will also make it easier in the future to add new features or to combine eDelivery with other technologies.
As the eDelivery specifications complement each other and are used in conjunction, the eDelivery specifications other than AS4 were also updated, though to a lesser degree, to ensure continued coherence and alignment. Separately from the modularisation, the updates also reflect another year of implementation experience and feedback, from both end users and implementers.
While the resulting specifications differ markedly from the previous versions, much emphasis was put on retaining backwards compatibility. This was done to make sure that current users do not have to change their deployments and that software having previously passed CEF conformance testing for AS4 or SMP continues to be conformant.
eDelivery Specifications
All specifications have now been renamed and are now referred to as eDelivery specifications: eDelivery AS4, eDelivery BDXL, eDelivery SMP and eDelivery ebCore Party Id Type. This new approach to naming is neutral, generic and better decouples the specifications from specific, time-bounded programs such as e-SENS or CEF that, over the years, support their maintenance. The new naming approach also emphasises the alignment with, and potential for re-use in, other contexts that need secure and reliable data exchange.
eDelivery AS4 Common Profile
In the eDelivery AS4 Profile, the main change is a substantial restructuring to provide more modularity and reusability. The eDelivery AS4 profile has been reorganised into a Common Profile and a number of optional, independent add-on Profile Enhancements. The Common Profile covers all selected technical and security-related parameters and is independent of specific domains, topologies and discovery and security infrastructures. The Enhancement provide additional optional extensions.
In addition to being a subset of the earlier AS4 profile used in the former e-CODEX, e-SENS and other EU projects, the Common Profile is a full subset of the ENTSOG AS4 Usage Profile used in the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas. For providers of AS4 solutions, this shared Common Profile offers a larger combined market for their solutions than existed for either of the earlier profiles. For users in public administrations and elsewhere, this in turn increases their choice of suppliers.
The Common Profile can be used with all Profile Enhancements and provides continuity and backward compatibility with the previous versions of the e-SENS and ENTSOG profiles, for which the market already provides solutions and which are currently in production. However, in many cases those Enhancements are not needed and the bare Common Profile is sufficient.
eDelivery AS4 Profile Enhancements
In addition to a Common Profile, a number of optional add-on Profile Enhancements are defined. A first Profile Enhancement specifies use of AS4 in Four Corner Topology. A second Profile Enhancement explains how to use eDelivery AS4 with the Standard Business Document Header. Functionality associated with dynamic discovery is covered in two separate modules, one covering dynamic functionality of a sender, and the other covering dynamic functionality of a receiver.
While these eDelivery AS4 Profile Enhancements already existed in the earlier versions of the documentation, their specification now is much more precise and complete. Furthermore, important implementation details were not previously included in the eDelivery specification and could at best be found in the documentation of specific pilots or user deployments. Some were left implicit. The updated documentation is much more complete, precise and self-contained.
The introduction of the concepts of the Common Profile and optional Profile Enhancements makes it easier to more precisely define conformance and supported functionality, and to add additional features without impacting existing implementations. A first planned additional Profile Enhancement will add additional functionality for the ebMS3 “Pull” message exchange patterns.
Other eDelivery Specifications
In addition to the name change to eDelivery SMP, the new version 1.10 of the eDelivery SMP specification was updated to align with the newer versions of all eDelivery specifications, in particular the introduction of the new Dynamic Sender Profile Enhancement in the eDelivery AS4 profile, which can use discovery to send messages to communications partners that have not been pre-configured statically. The SMP profile specification explains in detail how SMP is to be used in a discovery infrastructure, the parameters used for SMP queries and the use of retrieved SMP response data in eDelivery AS4 messaging.
Other than the name change to eDelivery ebCore Party Id Type, only editorial and bibliographic improvements were made in the new version 1.4 of this specification. Other than the name change to eDelivery BDXL, the new version 1.6 of eDelivery BDXL includes minor, mostly editorial, updates.
Impact on Conformance Testing
The eDelivery Conformance Testing service will be updated to reflect the changes resulting from the modularisation of the AS4 profile.
Specifically, the existing "AS4 generic" and "e-SENS specific AS4" test groups are remapped into "Common Profile" and "Four Corner Profile Enhancement" test groups. Additional test groups for the remaining Profile Enhancements (SBDH, Dynamic Receiver and Dynamic Sender) are currently being created.
AS4 solutions that were conformant prior to the modularisation of the AS4 profile will remain eDelivery AS4 conformant against the "Common Profile" and "Four Corner Profile Enhancement". Conformance to the other Profile Enhancements can be achieved by successfully passing all mandatory tests in the test group of the specific Profile Enhancement.
AS4 solutions that were not yet conformant prior to the modularisation of the AS4 profile can choose which optional Profile Enhancements to support in addition to the mandatory "Common Profile" when registering to the Conformance Testing service.
The current eDelivery specification update does not have an impact on SMP Conformance Testing or on conformant eDelivery SMP solutions.
More Information
For more information or if you have any feedback, please contact the CEF eDelivery team by email at CEF-EDELIVERY-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu.