The Presidency of the Council of Ministers has been asked to open negotiations with MEPs on the reforms in an effort to reach a consensus on the final wording of the draft Directive on electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) in public procurement.
Under the draft Directive, first outlined by the European Commission in June, public authorities across the EU would be obliged to accept e-invoices that conform to a new standard that would be developed under the new framework.
The Commission has said it would ask the European Committee for Standardisation to "draw up a European standard for the semantic data model of the core electronic invoice", under the proposals. The standard should "build on existing specifications" but be "technology neutral", and would also have to be able to guarantee protection of personal data in line with EU data protection laws.
Although there are a number of existing, mainly national, e-invoicing standards used across the EU, the Commission said at the time that it wants to develop a new standard to apply across the trading bloc in a bid to boost the "shift towards paperless public administration" and reduce the cost and complexity involved for businesses looking to "participate in cross-border procurement".