First meeting of EU Expert Group

I have the honour to chair the 30-strong EU expert group driving fast adoption of E-invoicing. The opening meeting was on Feb 26th. All my possible expectations were exceeded:

1. EU made stronger than ever statements that the 238bn€ saving must be achieved fast.

2. EU can take new and special pride that Europe is driving global standardization for payments, e-invoicing and now also e-identification based on the e-mandate work for direct debit also aiming at ISO 20022. We are proud to have been initiating and contributing to the four finalized, ongoing or starting ISO-projects in this field.

3. I had expected that the large group would have displayed normal differencies of opinion - this area has often been a gold mine for those looking for problems. The feeling was on the contrary very positive - we all seem to believe that we can find a common base and reach out to all parties involved.

All-in-all this means that the markets for e-invoicing and rapidly also other messaging are being made with astonishing speed. Now all interested parties have to gear up big time to reap the benefits from it.