Germany mandates PEPPOL for invoicing to the public sector

In April 2018, the German National IT Planning Council decided to mandate use of the PEPPOL eDelivery Network for transport of e-invoices to public authorities in Germany. The timeline for implementation will be decided in October, but the April decision already sets the direction for public sector e-invoicing in Germany in the years to come.

As part of the implementation of the Directive 2014/55/EU on electronic invoicing in public procurement in Germany, the National IT Planning Council has made two decisions:

In June 2017, it was mandated for public authorities to receive and process XRechnung invoices. The XRechnung is a Core Invoice User Specification (CIUS) of the European Norm (EN) 16931 on e-invoicing. National authorities can accept other formats next to XRechnung.
In April 2018, it was decided to establish one web service standard for public authorities to transport e-invoices (PEPPOL). The decision on timeline and conditions for using and joining the PEPPOL eDelivery Network for federal, regional and local authorities is planned to be made in October 2018. National authorities can accept other ways of transport of e-invoices.

As part of these decisions, the Coordination Office for IT Standards (KoSIT) was given the responsibility to maintain XRechnung and to become the German PEPPOL Authority. KoSIT is located within the e-government division of the core administration of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, but is a permanent organisation of the National IT Planning Council.

Head of the e-government division in Bremen, Martin Hagen, explains: “The decisions on mandating XRechnung and PEPPOL is among the first decisions based on a European requirement that has been taken under the State Treaty on IT and the role given the IT Planning Council as responsible for national IT cooperation. There will be a transition period but we expect the April decision to set the direction for public sector e-invoicing and use of the PEPPOL eDelivery Network in Germany already now.”

In a comment, OpenPEPPOL Secretary General André Hoddevik states: “We are very pleased with the decision now taken to mandate use of PEPPOL in Germany. KoSIT becomes the 10^th PEPPOL Authority, and we look forward to cooperate with them and the market players in Germany on the big task of rolling out PEPPOL in the public sector and beyond in Europe’s biggest economy”.

Moving forward, the next steps will be to setup the German PEPPOL Authority and map the XRechnung CIUS into a German rule set in the PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 CIUS. In preparation for the planned October decision on setting the timeline and conditions for using and joining the PEPPOL eDelivery Network, KoSIT will involve German stakeholders in the process.

Background: Role of the National IT Planning Council and KoSIT

The State Treaty on IT establishing the IT Planning Council lays the groundwork for cooperation on the use of information technology in federal and state public administration and implements Article 91c of the Basic Law (State Treaty on IT). The IT Planning Council is the central body responsible for National IT cooperation.

Based on Article 91c of the Basic Law, existing IT bodies and decision-making structures can be streamlined to operate more effectively and thus adapt to technological progress. Article 91c of the Basic Law also creates the legal prerequisites for seamless electronic communication among federal, state and local government agencies. The amendment also gave the Federal Government exclusive authority to pass legislation concerning a core network for federal and state public administration.

The IT Planning Council comprises permanent structures such as the Coordination Office for IT Standards (KoSIT). The main tasks of KoSIT are:

to assist the IT Planning Council in adopting IT interoperability and IT security standards;
to manage joint federal and state-level e-government projects.

KoSIT is located within the e-government division of the core administration of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, but is a permanent organisation of the National IT Planning Council.

For further information log on to www.xoev.de (in German)