E-invoicing in Europe: the challenge of interoperability
The European Commission has made an important finding: the lack of interoperability among e-invoicing standards in the EU hinders trade across borders. To come up with a solution, the Commission is relying on the support of the European Committee for Standardization. The goal is to establish and deploy standards in three areas:
- semantic data models ;
- syntaxes ;
- message transport methods.
To accelerate the adoption of these interoperability standards, the European Commission has created the Connecting Europe Facility program (CEF), headed by the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA). Through this structure, it subsidizes innovative initiatives in the fields of e-archiving, e-signature, data transport, e-identification and the standardization of e-invoicing. In line with its commitment to develop these areas, the CEF program has decided to finance the AS4EDI Consortium, which Generix Group has recently joined.
For further reading: E-invoicing : Generix Group joins the EURINV project
The AS4EDI project, a driver of change
The AS4EDI project: the technical aspects
The AS4EDI project, coordinated by the University of Valencia and the consulting firm LMT, stands for the European EDI Providers integrating the AS4 eSENS Profile.
The AS4EDI consortium aims to promote the CEF eDelivery building block to create digital data transport networks that are open, interoperable, distributed, secure, and trustworthy. The network infrastructure relies on the AS4 profile (OASIS standard), service metadata publisher (SMP), and PEPPOL network.
Generix Group is committed to ensuring interoperability and legal security
Generix Group, leading operator of inter-company electronic exchanges in France, has joined this project along with 5 other e-invoicing operators from England, Belgium, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands. The six companies selected have certified PEPPOL access points (Pan-European Public Procurement Online). The implementation period started in January 2019 and is set to close in June 2020.
Generix Group will thus have the opportunity to develop its PEPPOL access point thanks to the AS4 eSENS profile and SMP.
“In the absence of interoperability, companies are exposed to extremely complex situations, legal insecurity and significant operating costs. Our certified PEPPOL access point creates peace of mind for our clients as it secures electronic exchanges to 32 countries. With the European Commission’s support, we guarantee compliance with EU interoperability regulations and with the requirements of the eIDAS Regulation,” asserts Christophe Viry, Product Marketing Manager of Generix Group.