Europe generates around 27 billion invoices per year and the number of invoices being sent
electronically is growing exponentially. Out of the 25 countries in Europe, Germany, Sweden,
Norway and Finland send the most e-invoices, followed by France, UK, Netherlands and Belgium.

To help facilitate and support this growth in e-invoicing, the EC Directive on Invoicing (2001/115/EC)
was introduced in 2004. It was the aim of the Directive to simplify and harmonise VAT invoicing
requirements across Europe to make it easier for businesses to conduct cross-border trade. Each
member state was required to implement the Directive by January 2004. Since then all e-invoices
have been accepted as legal VAT documents by all EU Member States, provided that they meet with
specified security requirements.

There is no doubt that the Directive provided a valuable set of guidelines for member states to
follow regarding e-invoicing in Europe. But unfortunately it did not lead the way to one common
legislation used collectively by all, far from it. Although all member states have followed the
fundamentals of the original Directive there are a large number of variations, which has created a
very complex environment for businesses to exchange e-documents.