The European Commission partners OpenPEPPOL for digital data exchange

Under the terms of the agreement, the Commission will host a central service of the eDelivery network – the Service Metadata Locator - which allows participants in the network to dynamically locate each other across Europe. It will also ensure technical maintenance of the eDelivery software sample implementations. OpenPEPPOL will continue to manage the business-related governance of the network in the e-procurement domain.

The eDelivery network allows secure electronic exchange of data and documents between public administrations, businesses and citizens across national borders. The flow of data across borders and sectors is essential in achieving the digital single market.

The OpenPEPPOL Association was established after the successful completion of the of the Pan-European Public Procurement Online (PEPPOL) project. Today more than 10,000 public and private sector entities are part of the PEPPOL network from 17 Member States and they exchange over a million electronic invoices and other e-procurement documents every month, using the eDelivery network.

eDelivery is also used in other domains such as eJustice, for exchanging documents between national courts and the European Commission. Many other policy areas could benefit from cross-border and secure electronic exchange of data. This is why, in the context of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the European Commission is promoting the rollout of several essential components in the Member States, including eDelivery, with the goal to facilitate cross-border access to online services.

With this agreement, by hosting a central component of the eDelivery network, the Commission takes a big step forward in making the eDelivery solution reusable in different policy areas and thus contributing to the realisation of the digital single market.

The e-Delivery infrastructure was initially developed as part of the PEPPOL Large Scale Pilot project. The specifications provided to the Member States as part of the CEF eDelivery building block are document-type neutral and can be re-used in every domain.