Various eDelivery-based ecosystems have moved forward with their implementations. Learn more about the use of the Building Block in Peppol, EMSWe, EHDS, OOTS and eFTI in this overview article. |
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In the ever-evolving landscape of digital transformation, the eDelivery team would like to review 2024 when it comes to 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 important milestones this year. This article sheds light on recent developments in their implementations relevant to the 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.
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The Peppol 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 international Association, as its governaning entity, Peppol acts as a global interoperability ecosystem with its own governance, standards and operations. This eDelivery network is based on standardised communication among Access Points, operated by commercial service Providers enabling and ensuring seamless connectivity and data exchange between buyers and sellers that use Peppol Service Providers.
As of 2024 the Peppol four-corner model environment, where data is exchanged between access points operated by commercial service providers, can be used for exchanging logistics data 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.
Currently Peppol relies on the 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.
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).
Learn about eDelivery's presentation at the Peppol eInvoicing and eProcurement Conference here and Peppol's presentation in the eDelivery Informal Cooperation Network meeting here.
EMSWe – The European Maritime Single Window environment integrates national reporting systems into a coherent, interoperable framework and streamlines and harmonises the reporting obligations for ships arriving at and departing from EU ports. Established by Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 the EMSWe will apply from August 15, 2025 and is a game changer for ship operators, and all national authorities involved in a port call. EMSWe ensures that the data is provided in the same way across the EU and only needs to be provided once. Ship operators will be able to send their data to a Member State’s (MS) Maritime National Single Window (MNSW) using harmonised interfaces, notably the Reporting Interface Module (RIM) based on eDelivery. The EMSWe is in the late stages of development and Member States are starting the deployment phase.
EMSWe has been presented to both eDelivery Interoperability Forum and Informal Cooperation Network as a project to keep an eye on.
Decentralised network of 22 MNSWs across maritime MS integrates solutions such as Domibus and uses 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 the discovery and addressing of endpoints within the EMSWe network.
The technical infrastructure – RIM – reuses eDelivery to ensure 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 ship operators to submit formalities to Member States using AS4 protocol. One can learn more about it here. The testing of RIM with MS has started since 2024 and many MS plan to be ready for the 2025 go-live date.
The 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 the data space.
The 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. 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.
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 data space 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 interoperability.
The OOTS regulation also defines the concept of a so-called intermediary platform. An intermediary platform supports both 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.
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).
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.
<h2>eDelivery Building Block</h2> <p><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/wikis/x/4ojXGw"><b>eDelivery</b></a> 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.</p> <p>The eDelivery specifications include the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/x/NKbXGw"><strong><span>eDelivery AS4 profile</span></strong></a><span>, an open technical specification ensuring secure, payload-agnostic and reliable data exchange; the </span><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/x/o6fXGw"><strong><span>eDelivery SMP profile</span></strong></a><span>, designed for publishing service metadata within a 4-corner network; the </span><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/x/4qnXGw"><strong><span>eDelivery BDXL profile</span></strong></a><span>, which enables locating Access Points within the network; and the </span><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/x/6anXGw"><strong><span>eDelivery ebCore Party ID profile</span></strong></a><span>, a technical specification for the recommended notation for party addressing.</span></p> <p><span>Stay tuned for the latest updates on eDelivery services by checking the Building Block's <a href="https://twitter.com/eDeliveryBB"><strong>X</strong></a> and <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/x/4ojXGw"><strong>web page</strong></a>. For more information, do not hesitate to <a href="https://europa.eu/!v4njKB"><strong>register</strong></a> for personalised news or contact us via <a href="https://europa.eu/!BPvjcw"><strong>our portal</strong></a> or by email: <a href="mailto:EC-EDELIVERY-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu"><strong>EC-EDELIVERY-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu</strong></a>.</p> <br/> |