Directive on E-Invoicing and on end-to-end E-Procurement

- notes that the majority of contracting authorities and entities do not currently have the facilities to accept and process electronic invoices, and therefore sees it as essential to allow for proper preparation before the directive enters into force. The Committee of the Regions considers that an appropriate date for entry into force would be some time, for instance 30 months, after the Commission' publication of the reference to the standard. This will ensure that there is time for the standard to be applied in software and that the contracting authorities and entities have time to acquire systems supporting the standard. The Member States should provide training and support to contracting authorities to ensure that the provisions in the proposed directive can be implemented after the stated deadline;

- sees the proposal for a directive as a way of improving the conditions for interoperability and the operation of the internal market. It will make things easier for public contracting authorities and entities and their suppliers, and keeps costs down. At the same time, there is currently little cross-border trade, and from that point of view there is a risk that the directive could have a disproportionately high economic impact;

- would nonetheless note that it is important to ensure that the work of contracting authorities and entities and of their suppliers is not hindered or made more difficult by the proposed European standard. It would be very expensive if contracting authorities and entities were required to have the capacity to accept e-invoices in all technical formats that complies with the semantic data model. Instead, contracting authorities should only be required to accept electronic invoices using the European standard for the semantic data model and technical formats based on international standards by standardisation bodies recognised under EU law.