Final Report of the Expert Group on e-Invoicing

The Expert Group on e- Invoicing is one of the main International Working Groups in which the CBI Consortium takes part. This Group has been created under the aegis of the European Commission, in order to define, concurrently with the SEPA project, from the point of view of the integration with the banking community, a common framework for the development of international e-Invoicing services, fully integrated with financial services.

The remarkable results achieved by the Expert Group, already partly disclosed during January 2009 through a progress of work report (Mid Term Report), have been published in the ad hoc section of the European Commission website (www.ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/ict/e-invoicing/benefits/index_en.htm), which focuses on a detailed description of the "European Electronic Invoicing Framework" (EEIF) as a set of rules, models and standards intended to guarantee the interoperability of E-invoicing solutions on a European level, fostering its spread.

The Final Report, mainly addressed to the European Commission, to Member States, to the Public Administration and to e-Invoicing service providers, focuses on the needs of those small and medium enterprises fully capable to adopt massively e-Invoicing against a European backdrop.

The framework that has been recommended by the Expert Group is built upon a range of principles, among which it is extremely relevant the homogeneity of treatment between e-invoices and paper invoices (principle of "equal treatment"), the technological neutrality - safeguarding investments that have already been made - and an overall harmonisation and simplification of rules and procedures in e-Invoicing processes within different Member States.

The European Commission has considered useful to submit the Final Report to a public consultation by the last 26^th of February in order to allow the international community to express its remarks about the proposed framework and make its own suggestions upon which the Final Report should be further developed.

Therefore, ABI and CBI Consortium have prepared a Position Paper in order to suggest to the European Commission some further deepening about very important topics for the Italian banking community.

In particular, through the Position Paper, the Italian banking system has stated a general satisfaction for the important work carried out by the Expert Group, highlighting the value of a constructive dialogue among all the various players, to give concrete answers to the market requirements about evolved, innovative and based on international scheme services.

The Position Paper, approved by the ABI Executive Committee and subsequently sent to the European Commission, is available only for the consortium members into the Reserved Area of the CBI portal in CBI Documents/Other Documents.