The European Commission sent a letter of formal notice on Thursday 6 June to 12 Member States (Cyprus, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) to ensure rapid compliance with Directive 2014/55/EU relating to electronic invoicing in the context of public procurement.
As a reminder, this Directive aims to speed up and automate electronic invoices and payments by companies and thereby make it easier for them to manage their contracts throughout the Union. This is one way to make public procurement more attractive to companies, the institution explains.
However, by 17 April 2019 at the latest, explains the European Commission (which had invested 33 million euros to assist Member States through the Interconnection Mechanism in Europe), public procurement authorities should have been in compliance with the provisions of the Directive and able to receive and process electronic invoices accordingly, which was not the case for the States mentioned, notes the European Commission.
The 12 Member States now have two months to reply to the Commission, failing which the Commission could send them a reasoned opinion. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)