The Hungarian Public Procurement Act was modified as of 18 April 2019, in order to comply with the provisions of the Directive 2014/55/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of on electronic invoicing in public procurement.
According to the new provisions, in public procurement procedures contracting authorities are obliged to receive and process electronic invoices upon certain conditions. Those electronic invoices should be processed by the contracting authorities which comply with the European standard on electronic invoicing (i.e. EN 16931-1:2017) and with any of the syntaxes on the list published in the Official Journal of the European Union. In practical terms, this means that if a company submits a tender in a public procurement procedure, it may choose to use electronic invoicing and the contracting authorities must ensure the receipt and processing of invoices electronically. This modification can be seen as a new step in the promotion of electronic administrative procedures in Hungary.
The amendment also affects previous contracts, meaning that even in cases where the contracting authority did not give its written consent, it should accept electronic invoices. In addition, the obligation of the contracting party to prepare annual statistical reports has ceased.
By Levente Csengery, Partner, KCG Partners Law Firm
