CEF eIGOR project

eIGOR - eInvoicing GO Regional (action n. 2015-EU-IA-0050) is the national project funded by the European Commission to enable the national electronic invoicing system to exchange invoices in compliance with the European standard. AgID coordinates a group of Italian institutions and private partner, including the Revenue Agency, Uniocamere - in collaboration with Infocamere - Intercent-ER, InfoCert and Celeris Group which has been awarded funding for the project under the CEF Telecom Call – eInvoicing (2015-CEF-TC-2015-1).

The objective of the action is to make the national e-Invoicing process for public procurement compliant with Directive 2014/55/EU, implementing the European standard developed by CEN, the European standardisation body. The Directive 2014/55/EU simplifies the participation in cross-border public procurement, making it mandatory for all European public administrations to accept e-Invoices conformant to the European standard starting from March 2019.

In particular, the European standard EN16931-1 "Electronic invoicing – Part 1: Semantic data model of the core elements of an electronic invoice” defines the semantic data model of the European e-Invoice, including its key elements, and meeting the criteria set by the Directive 2014/55/EU. The semantic data model must be implemented using one of the two syntaxes selected by CEN, UBL 2.1 and UN/CEFACT CII. The European standard is composed of a set of technical documents that regulate the use of the standard, the syntaxes, as well as guidelines on interoperability of e-Invoices at the transmission level, and methodology for possible extensions. The expected results of the action are:

• Update of the national electronic invoice exchange system (Interchange System - SDI) managed by the Revenue Agency to ensure that Italian public administrations can receive invoices conformant to the European standard. In particular, a translation engine is expected to be integrated into the SDI to allow the translation of the xml invoice in the FatturaPA format to and from the two UBL 2.1 and UNCEFACT/CII syntaxes, so that the public administration can receive e-Invoices in their chosen format. SDI will be able to receive electronic invoices from the traditional transmission channels, and also from the PEPPOL network through a PEPPOL Access Point.

• Definition of a semantic mapping for electronic invoicing, from the national format to / from what is foreseen by the Directive 2014/55/EU and related syntaxes selected by the CEN Technical Committee 434 (CEN/TC 434), together with the implementation of a conversion framework.

• Update of the Unioncamere (Italian Chamber of Commerce Union) e-Invoicing tool which allows economic operators and contracting authorities to exchange invoices conformant to the European standard for e-Invoicing, making it available free of charge to Italian SMEs. This involves the integration of the electronic invoice converter into the Unioncamere system.

• Update of the Intercent-ER platform (PEPPOL partner and one of the leading Italian providers of electronic procurement services for public administrations) by integrating the electronic invoice converter.

• Update of the Infocert platform (one of the main operators in the national market for electronic invoicing and trust services for businesses and public administrations) by integrating the electronic invoice converter.

• Improvement of the electronic invoicing system in Italy following the adoption of European standard, allowing automated interaction with European economic operators and public administrations, as envisaged by the national digital growth strategy led by AgID.

The project proposes a scenario oriented to the flexibility of the e-Invoicing process towards the Public Administrations (PA) through the Exchange System, in order to allow a gradual transition to the use of the new European standard that must be accepted by the PA. In fact the PA will be able to choose the format in which to receive invoices, in addition to the reception and transmission channels, thanks to the new services integrated in the SDI. The evolution of the Interchange System will minimize the impact on the PA, which will preserve the investments made and choose methods and terms for the transition to handle electronic invoices in the European standard. The use cases that will be developed during the project include the exchange of electronic invoices conformant to the European standard between a foreign supplier and a national public body. The European standard has been developed so that it can also be used for electronic invoicing between companies, in the business-to-business context.

Public consultation of the Core Invoice Usage Specification for Italy

The Agency for Digital Italy has carried out a public consultation of CIUS-IT (Specifications for the use of Italian basic invoices), the definition of which is one of the main objectives of the eIGOR project.