The EU4Digital Facility showcased its eDelivery pilot for the cross-border exchange of invoice data between Ukraine and Poland during a virtual event held on 9 December.

The virtual showcase, held back to back with the 9^th eTrade Network Workshop, gathered more than 50 participants from Eastern partner countries as well as the European Union. Among the participants were: EU4Digital eDelivery experts, members of the eTrade Network cross-border working group, HDM Coordinators, and various participants from Eastern partner ministries as well as private companies.

EU4Digital Facility Deputy Team Leader Ruta Salvyte-Tamosiuniene introduced the event, which offered a practical look at the eDelivery pilot, allowing participants to  visualise step by step how electronic invoices are exchanged via the eDelivery solution. EU4Digital senior experts Jonas Zalinkevicius and Risardas Bedulskis presented the process between two pilot countries,  Ukraine and Poland. 

The eDelivery pilot between Ukraine and Poland was launched on October 9, when the standardised invoice data was successfully exchanged between four preselected importing and exporting companies.

The showcase highlighted technical aspects of the process, such as the pilot concept, some of the key requirements for eDelivery implementation, and the major benefits of joining the Peppol network, before detailing the step-by-step process of invoice exchange followed during the pilot. The showcase then went beyond the Ukraine and Poland example and illustrated how a country with an access point can further exchange data with any member that is part of the Peppol network, which currently has members in more than 30 countries – in the example, the data exchange was carried out with Lithuania. 

Participants also heard from partners whose role was crucial to the successful implementation of the pilot. Michael Latynskyi from the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine explained how, despite the challenges, much had been accomplished, including partner company selections, stakeholder involvement, numerous seminars, live events, and more. 

Looking forward, Latynskyi said Ukraine was now working with EU4Digital colleagues “on how better to build up the legal backbone for electronic invoices in Ukraine with the support of public and private companies” , and to move forward with the use of eDelivery. “As a Ministry, we see a measurable potential [in the eDelivery solution] for cross-sectoral activities,” he said. 

The EU4Digital Facility has recently initiated preparatory activities for eDelivery inter-EaP scenario testing with Armenia and Ukraine, to pilot the functioning of the solution within the region. After a month of work, Karen Martirosyan from the State Revenue Committee of Armenia said they also saw considerable potential for the future implementation of eDelivery for cross-border data exchange.  

The pilot activity will be followed by recommendations from the EU4Digital Facility, focused on two main priorities: 1) rollout and scale – i.e. how countries can migrate from the test environment to full use of eDelivery; and 2) learn and reuse – i.e. how other Eastern partner countries could benefit from this pilot and adopt the same solution.