The Commission shall request that the relevant European standardisation organisation draft a European standard for the semantic data model of the core elements of an electronic invoice (the ‘European standard on electronic invoicing’).

The Commission shall require that the European standard on electronic invoicing complies at least with the following criteria:

• it is technologically neutral,

• it is compatible with relevant international standards on electronic invoicing,

• it has regard to the need for personal data protection in accordance with Directive 95/46/EC, to a ‘data protection by design’ approach and to the principles of proportionality, data minimisation and purpose limitation,

• it is consistent with the relevant provisions of Directive 2006/112/EC,

• it allows for the establishment of practical, user-friendly, flexible and cost-efficient electronic invoicing systems,

• it takes into account the special needs of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as of sub-central contracting authorities and contracting entities,

• it is suitable for use in commercial transactions between enterprises.

The Commission shall request that the relevant European standardisation organisation provide a list with a limited number of syntaxes which comply with the European standard on electronic invoicing, the appropriate syntax bindings and guidelines on transmission interoperability, in order to facilitate the use of such standard.

The requests shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 10(1) to (5) of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012.

As part of the work to develop the standard by the relevant European standardisation organisation, and within the timeline identified in paragraph 2, the standard shall be tested as to its practical application for an end user. The Commission shall retain overall responsibility for the testing and shall ensure that, during the performance of the test, special account be taken of the respect for the criteria of practicality, user-friendliness and possible implementation costs in accordance with the second subparagraph of paragraph 1. The Commission shall submit a report on the outcome of the test to the European Parliament and the Council.

Where the European standard on electronic invoicing, drawn up in accordance with the request referred to in paragraph 1, satisfies the requirements contained therein and where a test phase in accordance with the fifth subparagraph of paragraph 1 has been completed, the Commission shall publish the reference to the standard in the Official Journal of the European Union, together with the list of a limited number of syntaxes drawn up in accordance with the request referred to in paragraph 1. That publication shall be completed by 27 May 2017.