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Mandatory electronic invoicing has become increasingly prevalent in Europe in recent years, with a number of countries embracing this method to modernise and simplify their invoicing processes. The transition to e-invoicing has been gradual but steady, with a range of European nations passing legislation and regulations to encourage the uptake of mandatory e-invoicing.
The recent Economic and Financial Affairs Council, commonly known as ECOFIN, convened in Luxembourg in July. During this meeting, EU member states demonstrated broad agreement on the majority of proposals presented under the ViDA project.
The publication of Directive 2014/55/EU marked a turning point for e-invoicing. Since then, e-invoicing has spread to every corner of the European continent. Prior to this legislation, Denmark, Sweden and Finland were the pioneering countries that took a step forward in implementing e-invoicing. Initially, it started with B2G transactions, and in the near future, mandatory use is expected to be extended to all B2B transactions.
Since the publication of Directive 2014/55/EU, e-invoicing has spread to all countries on the European continent.
In Europe, electronic invoicing is present in all countries and much of the success of its use is due to the regulatory impulse by the different governments to accelerate its implementation through compulsion. Such is the success of the B2G e-invoicing that the use of it is being extended to the B2B field. In this post, we will see which European countries are already adopting this new modality of invoicing between companies.
From 18th April, 2019, the public administrations of all EU Member States are compelled to electronically receive and process their invoices. This concerns any B2G (Business-to-Government) and G2G (Government-to-Government) trades and transactions within the European Union.
The 2014/55/EU regulation is aimed at standardise a common European e-invoicing format, so that any public or private supplier is able to work with European public administrations seamlessly. Developing cross-border trade falls under the main EU goals.
Estonia, like many other European countries, has decided to implement mandatory eInvoicing for the country’s public procurement. This decision is included in the modification of the Accounting Act that was published on 27 December 2016, which established that all contracting authorities (central, regional and local) must accept and process machine-processable invoices as of 1 March 2017.
Mandatory electronic invoicing with Czech institutions was established in the country on 1 October 2016, the year in which European countries such as Switzerland and Croatia also made it mandatory.
The first legislation requiring electronic invoicing for working with European public administrations came into force in February 2005. Denmark became the first European country to impose the mandatory sending and receiving of electronic invoices in B2G relations.
Electronic invoicing has been a reality in Sweden since 2008, when Ekonomistyrningsverket - ESV (Sweden’s National Financial Management Authority) established mandatory electronic invoicing for the agencies of Sweden's central government.
