First European e-Invoicing Model Interoperability Agreement

At its Annual General Meeting in Brussels on 22 November 2012,  EESPA, the European E-invoicing Service Providers Association, agreed its Model Interoperability Agreement (MIA)  and released it  for use by its members.  EESPA’s mission is to accelerate the adoption of e-invoicing based on services provided by its member community to their customers. With this announcement EESPA has achieved one of its key goals only 14 months after formal creation of the association. 

Interoperability between service providers helps invoice senders and receivers who employ the services of different service providers, by facilitating the exchange of invoices through a network of interconnected parties.The MIA provides for a standardized bilateral agreement for use by service providers with their chosen service provider partners. It supports a number of legal compliance frameworks such as digital signatures, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and business controls, and creates a harmonized environment based on standards. The text of the MIA  has the full legal blessing of a team of EESPA members’ legal counsel and conforms to Belgian law, its default jurisdiction, although other legal jurisdictions are also catered for.