(DRAFT) Exciting news from eDelivery ecosystems in 2024

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital transformation, eDelivery team would like to review 2024 for eDelivery-based ecosystems. This year brought three new digital ecosystems live, increasing the number of active eDelivery ecosystems to 36. Almost one third of them are currently facilitated by the EC corporate service (EU Send), which noted a 27% increased growth of connected Access Points just in the first half of the year. Besides the growth, various eDelivery ecosystems achieved very important milestones this year. This article sheds light on recent developments in their implementations relevant to eDelivery community. Peppol (Pan-European Public Procurement On-line), EMSWe (European Maritime Single Window environment), EHDS (European Health Data Space), OOTS (Once Only Technical System) and eFTI (electronic Freight Transport Information) exchange environment – all moved big steps forward in 2024. Let’s celebrate their success and learn about their journeys to an advanced future of digital data exchange across Europe.

On this page:

Peppol

Peppol (Pan-European Public Procurement On-line) network is one of the largest and oldest eDelivery networks facilitating the exchange of electronic business documents in B2B and B2G environments in 65 countries. Managed by OpenPeppol, a non-profit governance organisation, Peppol acts as a global interoperability ecosystem with its own governance, standards and operations. This eDelivery network features standardised layers and Access Points, enabling and ensuring seamless connection and data exchange through service providers.

Peppol logistics domain

As of 2024 a four-corner model, where data is exchanged between access points operated by service providers, of Peppol can be used for logistics in addition to invoicing and ordering. This new service domain addresses the complexity of logistics, which involves multiple actors, industries and business processes, with a standardised approach that can be adopted globally and regionally to improve visibility and transparency in the supply chain.  

Transition to a federated SML

Currently Peppol relies on European Commission’s Service Metadata Locator (SML) service. With increasing usage, Peppol is working with DIGIT to transition from a centralised to a federated SML. The evolving architecture have been discussing during eInvoicing and eProcurement Conference in May 2024, and eDelivery presentation can is available here. (Question to Lefteris: do you have some better source to direct someone interested in the proceedings of the Conference?) 

Peppol ViDA pilot

Peppol ViDA pilot demonstrates how the Peppol eInvoice specifications and the Peppol Network can meet the expectations of the Digital Reporting Requirements (DRR) outlined in the VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) directive, which mandates the use of electronic invoicing and VAT reporting for cross-border transactions within the EU. In the ViDA pilot Peppol together with tax administrations, service providers and businesses are piloting a five-corner model to include regulatory reporting (enabling tax and other types of reporting through the network).

EMSWe

EMSWe – The European Maritime Single Window environment integrates various national systems into a cohesive, interoperable framework and streamlines and harmonises the reporting procedures for ships arriving at and departing from EU ports. Established by Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 the EMSWe goes live on 15 August 2025 and is a game-changer to shipowners, port authorities and national governments. EMSWe ensures that the data provided is the same everyone in the EU and needs to be provided only once. A shipowner will send data to a Member State’s (MS) National Single Window (NMSW) and this data will go to EMSWe by eDelivery facilitated Reporting Interface Module (RIM). The EMSWe is in the late stages of development and is beginning the deployment phase.  

EMSWe has been presented to both eDelivery Interoperability Forum and Informal Cooperation Network as a project to keep an eye on. 

Reuse of eDelivery

Decentralised network of 22 MNSWs across MS integrates solutions like Domibus and employs the four-corner model to enhance interoperability, security and efficiency. eDelivery components such as the Service Metadata Locator (SML) and Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) are used to manage discovery and addressing of endpoints within the EMSWe network.  

RIM

The technical infrastructure – RIM – reuses eDelivery for ensuring secure data exchange and is a mandatory component to be integrated by MS in their MNSW. RIM acts as an AS4 Access Point and allows senders to submit formalities to Member States via AS4 message. You can learn more about it here. The testing of RIM with MS has been started since 2024 and some MS plan to be ready for 2025 go-live date.  

EHDS

European Health Data Space (EHDS) – a key pillar of European Health Union is the first sectorial data space enabling the benefits of primary (MyHealth@EU) and secondary (HealthData@EU) health data exchange. eDelivery reuse for EHDS has been piloted in the latest HealthData@EU pilot and is reused in the HealthData@EU Central Platform. The TEHDAS2 – the Second Joint Action Towards the European Health Data Space continues the work for EHDS by developing concrete guidelines and technical specifications for EHDS. 

HealthData@EU Central Platform

HealthData@EU Central Platform is a pivotal digital system developed by the European Commission to implement the requirements of the upcoming EHDS Regulation. This platform contains the EU Dataset Catalogue, which gathers metadata from European Institutions, Member States, third countries and research organisations. The machine-to-machine connection between the Central Platform and Contact Points is ensured by eDelivery AS4 standard implementation. The infrastructure, developed and tested during the EHDS Pilot project, reuses eDelivery AS4 software infrastructure. Release 2 of HealthData@EU Central Platform with new features has been presented in October 2024 to the community. Future updates are planned and will be rolled out in cooperation with EHDS key stakeholders. 

OOTS

The Once Only Technical System (OOTS) is an initiative under the Single Digital Gateway Regulation (SDGR). The OOTS lets EU public authorities securely exchange official documents and data – at the request of citizens and businesses – as part of cross-border administrative procedures, e.g., when registering an address or vehicle when moving abroad. This is part of a wider move to a “search-free” administrative model of automated data-exchange, as opposed to document-exchange.  

The OOTS is the first EU-wide dataspace and a large-scale example of cross-border infrastructure reducing the administrative burden on Europe’s citizens and businesses. eDelivery is crucial to the OOTS, providing the technology for secure data exchange between public authorities and central services. Read here about how the OOTS and eDelivery put evidence sharing at the heart of EU-wide interoperability. 

Intermediary platform

The OOTS regulation also defines the concept of a so-called intermediary platform. An intermediary platform supports evidence requesters or evidence providers and enables the automated exchange of documents and data between national authorities from pre-existing eGovernment procedure portals, national registers and EU-wide systems. An intermediary platform that supports evidence providers can receive requests and send responses as eDelivery messages and facilitates connection and user re-direction services to a different non-eDelivery interface. Specific instances of Intermediary Platforms have been developed for the education and vehicle domains. 

OOTS Projectathons

To advance the implementation of the OOTS, the Commission regularly organises OOTS Projectathons. These are large-scale testing events for different systems to connect and perform marathons of peer-to-peer interoperability and compliance tests in a structured environment. The last Projectathon focused on four domains – vehicle registries, business-related procedures, population domain and education. More than 400 tests have been completed, including higher quality transactions than at previous Projectathons. In total, 288 Member States experts participated to achieve this success (on-site and online). 

eFTI

The electronic Freight Transport Information (eFTI) exchange environment comes in place to support all EU Member States to accept and process freight transport information from economic operators. The recent achievements in the eFTI initiative include the adoption of the Implementing Act on common procedures and rules for accessing and processing eFTI data by competent authorities, and the Delegated Act on the eFTI common data set and eFTI data subsets. These acts provide the technical specifications and implementation guidelines necessary for the successful deployment of the eFTI exchange environment. Learn more about eDelivery’s role in eFTI and its development here.

eDelivery Building Block

eDelivery is a Building Block provided by the European Commission, offering technical specifications, installable software and services for secure digital data exchange across a network of nodes.

The eDelivery specifications include the eDelivery AS4 profile, an open technical specification ensuring secure, payload-agnostic and reliable data exchange; the eDelivery SMP profile, designed for publishing service metadata within a 4-corner network; the eDelivery BDXL profile, which enables locating Access Points within the network; and the eDelivery ebCore Party ID profile, a technical specification for the recommended notation for party addressing.

Stay tuned for the latest updates on eDelivery services by checking the Building Block's X and web page. For more information, do not hesitate to register for personalised news or contact us via our portal or by email: EC-EDELIVERY-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu.