Why Peppol?

Overall, governments are the largest buyer in the European Union, but they are lagging behind major industries in electronic data exchange with suppliers. Government purchases in the European Union account for around 16 % of GDP, which is equal to 1,500 Billion Euro, however

• Overall capabilities of governments to handle key processes with their suppliers such as tenders, orders, delivery notes, catalogues, invoices, or payments is lagging behind other major industries.
• The lack of common standards for electronic data exchange is considered an obstacle for companies to participate without barriers in public procurement processes

EU member states have expressed a political will to change public procurement significantly. The Manchester ministerial declaration of 24 November 2005 for example defines that “by 2010 all public administrations across Europe will have the capability of carrying out 100 % of their procurement electronically and at least 50 % of public procurement above the EU public procurement threshold will be carried out electronically.” The PEPPOL project is strongly supporting this target.

Vision and Objectives

The broader vision of PEPPOL is that any company (incl. SMEs) in the EU can communicate electronically with any EU governmental institution for all procurement processes. The objective of the PEPPOL (Pan-European Public eProcurement On-Line) project is to set up a pan-European pilot solution that, conjointly with existing national solutions, facilitates EU-wide interoperable public eProcurement. The vision of the PEPPOL project is that any company and in particular SMEs in the EU can communicate electronically with any European governmental institution for the entire procurement process. The final outcome of PEPPOL will be an interoperational environment build upon national systems and infrastructures supporting the full cycle of eProcurement activities.

The pilots to be developed in  PEPPOL will support any economic  operator in the EU and the European  Economic Area (EEA) to respond to any  published public tender notice  electronically and to govern the entire  procurement process. Thereby PEPPOL  will focus on the engagement and participation of SME companies to public eProcurement.