European Multi-Stakeholder Forum on eInvoicing Publishes Key Reference Documents
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The European Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Electronic Invoicing (EMSFEI) has released a series of documents addressing specific aspects concerning implementation of the European standard on eInvoicing.
These EMSFEI documents provide an expert view on what steps should be taken to successfully implement the European standard on eInvoicing and cater for national specific processes or any (additional) legal requirements. The EMSFEI brings together stakeholders from national eInvoicing forums, from both the public sector and industry.
European legislation (Directive 2014/55/EU on electronic invoicing in public procurement) called for the creation of the European standard. The Directive states that that all contracting authorities and contracting entities must receive and process electronic invoices which comply with the European standard. 18 April 2019 is the legal deadline for the transposition of the Directive into national law.
Ahead of the legal deadline, these documents aim to facilitate implementation of the Directive and provide clarity on key issues relating to the European standard on eInvoicing. You can download the documents for your own reference or to disseminate with interested parties.
The documents explore the following essential elements of ensuring interoperable eInvoicing in Europe:
- Checklist for the transposition and general implementation of the eInvoicing Directive: An essential and handy checklist for for decision-makers who have responsibility for eInvoicing in all public sector organisations throughout Europe, supporting public administrations in both the transposition of the eInvoicing Directive into national law and the implementation of a European standard on eInvoicing.
- Recommendation on the use of ‘Core Invoice Usage Specifications’ (CIUS): While Directive 2014/55EU enables interoperable eInvoicing, the legislation also takes into consideration that buyers who must support specific processes or legal requirements may need to restrict the core data model or they may need to extend the core. The European standard provides for this by defining Core Invoice Usage Specification (CIUS) and Extensions. The CIUS and extensions can however inhibit interoperability and the rationale of the Directive. The EMSFEI recommendations here are therefore extremely useful for eInvoicing stakeholders who are considering making use of a CIUS.
- Discussion paper on the growth of additional requirements and the fragmentation of provisions relating to eInvoicing at Member State level: A growing number of Member States are introducing additional requirements for eInvoicing based on local definitions and provisions. Such requirements are usually motivated to improve tax revenue generation for government. The Commission welcomes and supports Member State governments improve revenue generation, eliminate tax fraud or under-declaration and improve audit and control procedures. However, these additional requirements are presently not at all harmonised across the EU and may unintentionally impact the ability of taxable persons and their service providers to generate, deliver and report e-invoices by electronic means. This Discussion paper outlines recommendations to both the European Commission and Member States to ensure that requirements are developed and defined in a way that does not create obstacles to the players in the Single Market.
The EMSFEI produces such documents on a six-month basis, with three more documents foreseen before the end of the year.
The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) currently offers grant funding of up to € 5 million to support the adoption of compliant eInvoicing solutions by both public and private entities. The deadline for applications is 18 September 2018.
The CEF eInvoicing building block serves to support public administrations in complying with the aforementioned eInvoicing Directive, and helps solution providers adapt their services accordingly. Via the CEF eInvoicing User Community, you can also post comments and questions on the content of these documents and chat directly with CEF eInvoicing experts.
AS4 Published in IHE Technical Publication
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On 20. August 2018, the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Infrastructure Technical Committee published new Technical Framework Supplements including the AS4 message exchange specification.
IHE works to enable seamless and secure access to health information that is usable whenever and wherever needed. IHE is an initiative by healthcare professionals and industry to improve the way computer systems in healthcare share information around the world, and is a non-profit organisation.
IHE states that:
“The AS4 Specification provides a more robust Asynchronous WS Exchange Option which is attractive for upcoming cross-border ehealth information exchange, such as the European eHealth Digital Service Infrastructure that deploys the XCA, XCPD, and XCDR Profiles and for countries where the adoption of the OASIS AS4 reliable and secure messaging is common when cross-sector (beyond the health sector) applicability is needed.”
AS4 (a conformance profile of the OASIS ebMS 3.0 specification) is typically used for the secure and reliable exchange of documents, attachments to these documents and data in general, and can be used in Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Administration (B2A) and Administration-to-Administration (A2A) exchange contexts. AS4 can be used in virtually every sector or business domain.
Today, AS4 is the message exchange protocol underpinning the eDelivery building block of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The IHE technical publication of the AS4 option means that the AS4 profile promoted CEF eDelivery is in-line with IHE's international guidelines.
Visit CEF Digital 2018 to learn more about AS4 and interoperable cross-border data exchange.
The CEF Building Blocks Support Digital Rights in the Digital Single Market
The European Commission and EU Member States support citizen’s #DigitalRights by promoting the use of national electronic ID across borders.
The mutual recognition of eID schemes across Europe is mandated by the eIDAS Regulation, which states that by 29 September 2018 all online public services requiring electronic identification corresponding to an assurance level of 'substantial' or 'high' must be able to accept the notified eID schemes of other European countries.
eIDAS supports electronic identification (eID) and electronic Trust Services (eTS) in the internal market. eID and eTS are key enablers for secure cross-border electronic transactions and central building blocks of the Digital Single Market.
Financed by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the CEF eID Building Block primarily supports the EU Member States in the roll-out of the eIDAS Network (the technical infrastructure which connects national eID schemes together). Public and private sector Service Providers are able to connect to this network, making their online services accessible cross-border and allowing them to enjoy the legal recognition brought by eIDAS.
Trust services include electronic signatures, electronic seals, time stamps, electronic delivery service and website authentication. The CEF eSignature Building Block helps public administrations and businesses to accelerate the creation and verification of electronic signatures.
Together, eID and eTS are essential elements for the establishment of legal certainty, trust and security in electronic transactions.
Learn more about how CEF eID, eSignature and the other Building Blocks (eDelivery, Context Broker, eInvoicing and eTranslation) support your digital rights and contribute to the Digital Single Market on CEF Digital 2018.
A Connecting Europe Success Story
CEF eDelivery: Domibus 4.0 RC - Available Now
European Commission 2018
The European Commission is happy to announce that the release candidate (RC) of the Domibus AS4 sample implementation software is now available.
Domibus 4.0-RC1 is a major release, with several modifications regarding the previous versions. The Commission therefore strongly encourages all interested parties to test this release. However, as this is not a production ready release, it should be used for testing purposes only.
The eDelivery Building Block of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) promotes the use of the AS4 messaging protocol to create a secure channel for the transmission of documents and data by electronic means, over the internet or via a private network. CEF supports multiple digital infrastructure projects which contribute to improvements in the daily lives of Europeans through digital inclusion, the connectivity and interoperability of European digital services, and the development of a Digital Single Market.
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. AS4 both provides evidence relating to the handling of the transmitted data as well as protecting it against the risk of loss, theft, damage or any unauthorised alterations.
Domibus 4.0-RC1 is backwards compatible with 3.3.x and the upgrade is not mandatory. Please note that the custom plugins need to be updated in order to be compatible with Domibus 4.0-RC1. PMode configuration files that were used with Domibus 3.3.x can also be used in Domibus 4.0-RC1 whitout any change.
- Multi-tenancy support
- TEST service that allows to "ping" a communication partner
- Audit support
- Export UI tables metadata as CSV files
- Management of participants through the administration console
- Alert management module
- Domibus support for Wildfly 12
- Keep the history of PMode changes
- Configurable Domibus Admin Console title
- Support for LDAP CRLs
- Fix the Unique Particle Attribution violations in the Default WS Plugin
In addition, the European Commission is organising a webinar exploring Domibus 4.0.
This webinar will showcase the new features available with Domibus 4.0 and to promote and support the upgrade to this latest version of the software.
Participants to this Webinar will learn about:
- Domibus - the European Commission open source sample implementation based on the AS4 profile
- The latest version of Domibus and its main improvements
- Step by step guide on how to upgrade to Domibus 4.0
The target audience for this session are technical teams aiming to implement or already using the Domibus software in any of its versions.