On 26 June 2013 the European Commission launched a new initiative to modernise public procurement. This initiative includes, on the one hand, a communication setting out actions which should be taken by the EU and by Member States to achieve the transition towards end-to-end e-procurement and, on the other hand, a focused legislative proposal on the use of electronic invoicing in public procurement ("Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on electronic invoicing in public procurement" (COM(2013) 449). The purpose of the proposed directive is to develop a new European e-invoicing standard and to provide an obligation for Member State administrations to accept e-invoices which comply with this new European standard.

The legislative initiative on e-invoicing is one of the five key priorities identified by the CoR for subsidiarity monitoring in 2013. A CoR opinion for both the legislative proposal and for the communication (COM(2013) 453) is being prepared within the ECOS Commission (rapporteur: Ms Catarina Segersten-Larsson, SE/EPP).

This special consultation is organised during the Early Warning System (EWS) 8-week period, set from July to 26 September 2013. Through its REGPEX website, the CoR will facilitate exchange of information between regions with legislative powers that may be consulted by their national Parliaments in the context of the EWS procedure. It will also liaise with the CoR rapporteur and make sure that observations from the regions and other SMN partners will be drawn to his attention. Eventually, it will analyse and summarise contributions in a report that will be forwarded to the European Commission.