27 February 2025 / 10:30-12:30 (CET)

Summary

After another successful year in eDelivery, the collaboration with software and service providers continues into 2025. In February, we’ll gather to discuss the latest eDelivery updates, explore related topics, and share another insightful presentation on the eDelivery ecosystem. Stay tuned for more details!

The eDelivery Interoperability Forum is a platform for software and service vendors to connect with the eDelivery team and to exchange ideas, ensuring that products using eDelivery are interoperable! For this reason, a close exchange with private-sector eDelivery solutions is invaluable. 

Presentation

Meeting invitation

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Contact

If you have any additional comments or questions on the webinar, or generally concerning eDelivery or the Service Offering please reach out to us via our Service Desk.

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Agenda

ItemSpeakerNotes

Introduction

Inês Costa (IC) 

  • IC welcomed participants, reminded that the meeting was not recorded, directed to the content from previous meetings, explained that the eDelivery Interoperability Forum operates on a membership basis and encouraged those who had not yet registered to do so. 
  • IC outlined the agenda, which included updates on eDelivery specifications, a roundtable discussion and an ecosystem presentation on the Peppol ViDA Pilot. 

eDelivery updates

Bogdan Dumitriu (BD), Inês Costa (IC) and Kris Straszak (KS), with contribution from Pim van der Eijk (PE)

Update on eDelivery specifications 

  • BD said that the eDelivery 2.0 specifications were adopted in December 2024. 
  • Following a public consultation and a dedicated virtual discussion, the eDelivery AS4 profile 2.0 was published without a non-repudiation mechanism for compressed payloads, as it would conflict with the AS4 standard. 
  • The next eDelivery Interoperability Event will be held in September 2025. 
  • Formal conformance testing covering AS4 2.0 is planned for 2026. 
  • An eDelivery Interoperability Forum member raised a concern about refToMessageId being used in One-Way MEP, which contradicts ebMS3 specifications. PE explained that the eDelivery AS4 profile allows Two-Way MEP, expanding on standard AS4 but confirmed that refToMessageId should not be used in One-Way MEP. BD said the conformance testing platform will strengthen checks to prevent non-compliant implementations by the end of 2025 and confirmed the eDelivery team would follow up on the question after the meeting. 

eDelivery newsletter contributions guidelines 

  • IC announced solution providers will be able to submit news and event announcements for the eDelivery newsletter. 
  • Contributions must be in English, with a teaser containing up to 350 characters, and be from a solution provider that passed conformance tests within the last three years. 
  • The next newsletter will be published in May/June 2025, and submissions are open until 16 May 2025. 

 

News in eDelivery 

  • BD communicated that the Digital Building Blocks website (eDelivery is part of it) has been redesigned in early February for easier navigation and better content structure. 
  • BD announced a new version of eDelivery2-as4-security-validator (ex-Crypto Tool) will launch by April 2025, helping solutions providers test eDelivery AS4 2.0 conformance before formal testing. 
  • BD provided an update on eDelivery reuse compared to November 2024: Decide Replies, a system for handling parliamentary questions, is migrating to eDelivery and should be live by early 2026. 
  • An eDelivery Interoperability Forum member asked about eDelivery’s interoperability with Simpl; BD explained that while eDelivery is not currently integrated, discussions are ongoing with DG CNECT to assess feasibility; a proof of concept will be developed to explore eDelivery as a transport option in Simpl’s data architecture; more details will be available after the first technical meetings. 

Conformance certificates 

  • KS presented patch version 2023.06-p2 of the Conformance Testing Service, which introduces clearer test structures and conformance certificates. 
  • KS described a new conformance overview certificate, a document providing the very certificate on the front page followed by a detailed test results summary. 
  • This certificate can be used for marketing or internal validation; it can be downloaded ahead of time by a solution provider but is official only when signed by the eDelivery team.

Have your say!

eDelivery Interoperability Forum members

  • Participants joined small groups to discuss their ongoing initiatives, eDelivery specifications and conformance testing. Many were interested in updates on Peppol, eFTI, EMSWe, EHDS and OOTS, with some requesting clearer information on upcoming specification changes. Several attendees highlighted the importance of end-to-end encryption between C1 and C4 and expressed interest in exploring its potential implementation. 
  • Regarding conformance testing, some attendees noted that implementing eDelivery from scratch remains complex, and they would benefit from better structured guidance and visibility for their solutions. 
  • The eDelivery newsletter was recognised as a valuable resource for the community. Some participants indicated they would like to submit content for upcoming editions. 
  • Additionally, there was interest in showcasing eDelivery as an open-source solution within ETSI’s Open Source MANO (OSM) initiative. 
  • A participant from Poland shared insights into their public administration eDelivery system, which becomes mandatory in 2025, advocating for a pan-European digital exchange network. 
  • Some participants, particularly from Norway, discussed their involvement in the ViDA pilot, aiming to stay ahead of trends in eDelivery adoption. 
  • One provider found public European ecosystems (with OOTS as an example) too closely linked to Domibus and suggested improving the separation between eDelivery and the sample software (e.g., by moving the sample software to a different web site). A further suggestion was related to expanding the approach to the AS4 user needs page to take into account other solutions and allow matchmaking between users and providers. 
  • Overall, discussions reflected a strong demand for greater transparency and ecosystem collaboration. The eDelivery team will review this feedback and explore possible improvements. 

Ecosystem presentation: ViDA Pilot

Lefteris Leontaridis (LL), Head of the Peppol Operating Office

Overview 

  • LL introduced the Peppol ViDA Pilot, an initiative to integrate eDelivery with VAT reporting under the ViDA directive. 
  • The pilot explores expanding Peppol’s four-corner model to a five-corner model, where tax administrations act as Access Points (C5), and a six-corner model, which adds a data lake (C6) for tax data analysis. 

 Technical and interoperability aspects 

  • Tax authorities would receive transaction data automatically via Peppol’s eDelivery infrastructure instead of businesses submitting reports separately. 
  • AS4 messaging will be used for tax reporting exchanges, maintaining compatibility with Peppol’s current framework. 
  • A key discussion point was whether tax data should be sent from C2 to C5 directly or also from C3 to C5 to improve reconciliation. 

Discussion 

  • BD asked whether ViDA’s status tracking seems similar to the track-and-trace requirements mentioned by other eDelivery-based  ecosystems and encouraged a collaboration to implement such functionalities in a generic way that can be standardized for eDelivery


 

About eDelivery

The eDelivery Building Block helps public administrations and businesses (and indirectly citizens) to participate in eDelivery messaging infrastructures which facilitate organisation-to-organisation messaging by enabling their systems to interact with each other in a secure, reliable and trusted way. The Digital Europe Programme currently ensures the funding of the services offered by the eDelivery Building Block as part of its policy of promoting the adoption of common standards in different policy domains (such as eJustice, eProcurement, eCustoms, eProcurement, eHealth, etc.) under Specific Objective 5.

Useful links:

About Building Blocks

The Building Blocks are standards-based open and reusable digital solutions that enable basic capabilities, such as trusted authentication and secure data exchange. They offer basic capabilities that can be used in any European project to facilitate the delivery of digital public services across borders.

Deployed alone or as a portfolio, the Building Blocks allow data to become the digital lifeblood of modern services, built on the principle of interoperability. The Building Blocks implement the provisions of the eIDAS regulation on authentication and trust services in the internal market, a global legal and technical reference in secure, trusted cross-border authentication.

The role of the Building Blocks can also be seen in the digitisation and innovation of market processes. Digital solutions that respect a common standard open up balanced competition within the internal market, along with the door to innovative new processes and a greening of old, paper-based business processes.

About DIGITAL Europe Programme

The Digital Europe Programme introduced some organisational changes to the provision of cross-border interoperable digital services deployed under it. This includes focused efforts to support the digital transformation of public administrations throughout Europe.

The Digital Europe Portal is the home of the eIDAS enabler Building Blocks: eDelivery, eID, eInvoicing, eSignature and OOTS. It is the one-stop shop for information about the Building Blocks. The portal provides access to tools, services and software that can be used in any European project to facilitate the delivery of digital public services across borders.