UPDATE 15/4/2014: Electronic invoicing in public procurement has been approved by the European Council of Ministers: http://t.co/QpV1NDiX8Z

The momentum for EU-wide e-invoicing continued to build a bit, as the EU endorsed a new directive which covers the creation of a single standard for e-invoicing in public procurement. This will mean that e-invoices sent by a company that comply with EU standards will be accepted by all European public authorities.

Commissioner for internal market and services Michel Barnier said the move to e-invoicing would “contribute to eliminating barriers to cross-border public procurement” and could generate savings of €2.3 billion per year across the EU.

It’s another example of how e-invoicing is establishing itself as part of the payments ecosystem.

3 + 3 is 6 years before it is being rolled out…

However we should take into account what Peter Loughlin mentioned in this post:

“Malcolm Harbour, Member of the European Parliament, brought good news and less good news. The good news was that he was able to confirm that the European Commission had given its approval to support e-invoicing by developing a single standard to support interoperability across the EU. This has been reported widely but it was great hearing the interpretation directly from the MEP. The less good news was the description of the timescales to develop and implement the standard. My heart sank, and I think a few others did too, when we heard that it would take 3 years to deliver the standard and that would be followed by another 3 years to deploy it.”

What does it mean? That this move to e-invoicing is way to late to help make the 2020 EU e-invoicing ambition a reality… It’s time for mandatory EU e-invoicing.