L 289/38 Official Journal of the European Union 7.11.2007 COMMISSION DECISION of 31 October 2007 setting up an Expert Group on electronic invoicing (e-Invoicing) (2007/717[EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Whereas: Article 3 of the Treaty assigned the Community the task of ensuring the creation of an internal market charac- terised by the abolition, between Member States, of obstacles to the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital. Article 232 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (1) allows the issue of electronic invoices instead of paper invoices. The revised Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs (?) provides an all encompassing economic reform agenda. Its micro economic pillar focuses on creating a business- friendly environment. Within this target, the devel- opment of interoperable electronic invoicing (e- Invoicing) solutions is a vital component. In its communication to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions 2010 — A European Information Society for growth and employment’ }) of 1 June 2005, the Commission launched the i2010 initiative as a framework for addressing the main challenges and developments in the information society and media sector up to 2010. It promotes an open and competitive digital economy and emphasises information and communication tech- nologies (ICT as a driver of inclusion and quality of life). The European Payments Council (EPC), the decision making and coordination body of the European banking industry in relation to payments, has committed itself to establishing by 2010 a Single Euro () O] L 347, 11.12.2006, p. 1. Directive as amended by Directive 2006/138/EC (O] L 384, 29.12.2006, p. 92). () COM(2005) 24. () COM(2005) 229 final. ) (10) Payments Area (SEPA) with integrated payment infra- structures and payment products. e-Invoicing links the internal processes of enterprises to the payment systems. Therefore, SEPA and a successful European e-Invoicing initiative would complement each other. These two initiatives together are expected to deliver huge benefits to enterprises and financial service providers through improved efficiency and automation of supply chains. In order to enhance the use of the digital environment and to reap the full benefits of e-Invoicing in the Community, the current practices should be simplified and the transition to new business models facilitated by a more integrated and uniform framework. This would specially serve the interests of European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In December 2006, a group of stakeholders formed an industry Task Force on e-Invoicing, which was chaired by the services of the Commission, and included enterprises, representatives of banks and other service providers, as well as standardisation organisations. The aim of the Task Force was to pave the way for future work on a European e-Invoicing Framework. The Task Force formulated proposals for a potential governance structure and designed a roadmap for an e-Invoicing programme. The Task Force delivered its final report in June 2007. Given the positive experience with the Task Force, and in order to address longer-term issues, an Expert Group on e-Invoicing should be established. Its tasks should be to identify business requirements (%) and responsibilities for the execution of specific work, as well as to steer the creation — by the end of 2009 — of a European e-Invoicing Framework to establish a common conceptual structure to support the provision of e-Invoicing services in an open and interoperable manner across Europe. (*) e-Invoicing business requirements represent the characteristics that e- Invoice services should match in order to satisfy the stakeholders’ business needs and goals, enabling the processes of the entire financial and supply chains. They are expressed in terms of high level process flows, e-invoice information and standard message structure.