OpenPEPPOL - a non-profit international association - is expected to ensure high level governance and continuation of the agreement infrastructure while promoting the wider use of PEPPOL-based eProcurement solutions in Europe.

The association is drawn up as the user-driven path towards PEPPOL sustainability; it is being supplemented by an EC supported path and a standardisation focused path, respectively. Thus, the three main paths for PEPPOL's sustainability as described in the roadmap are as follows:

1.    User driven path: OpenPEPPOL.

2.    EC-supported path towards the establishment of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF):

• Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations Programme (ISA) operations and governance of centralised software components/services (SML) for PEPPOL's transport infrastructure (eDelivery).
• The new European Commission Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT-PSP) Work Programme's project 'Basic Cross Sector Services' Pilot A (BCSS) (CIP ICTPSP Work Programme 2012, topic 4.1).

3.   Standardisation path: continued efforts for standardisation of business processes and semantics and eDelivery through: the European Committee for Standardasation Workshop on 'Business Interoperability Interfaces on public procurement in Europe' Phase 2 (CEN WS BII); OASIS Business Document Exchange (BDX) Technical Committee (TC); and other relevant standardisation bodies/initiatives.  

In more detail, one of the main purposes for the OpenPEPPOL association, as it is currently being discussed within the PEPPOL consortium, is to ensure the long-term sustainability of the PEPPOL infrastructure networks and user communities; and this is by providing the authoritative governance framework that supports the application and use of legal agreements. These legal agreements underpin operations and transactions within the networks of interoperable, PEPPOL-compliant infrastructure and the organisations that use it in the frame of the PEPPOL communities.

It is planned that the OpenPEPPOL association will be established as a non-profit international association under Belgium law (International association without lucrative purpose - Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif - AISBL, in French).

Operations of centralised PEPPOL software components/services are part of the 2012 ISA Work Programme. The process for the transfer of ownership and scope for ISA responsibilities is currently being discussed as part of the EC supported path for PEPPOL sustainability. Continued development of the PEPPOL building blocks is part of the scope for the CIP ICTPSP 2012 Work Programme Pilot A 'Basic Cross Sector Services' Call, which is expected to start late 2012 or early 2013. This means that the interface and the division of responsibilities between the user driven sustainability path, the EC supported path and the standardisation focused path are currently being shaped.

A prolongation of the PEPPOL project until 31 August 2012 has been agreed within the PEPPOL consortium, and is currently pending EC approval. The OpenPEPPOL association as well as the ISA operations of PEPPOL components are expected to become operational before the end of the PEPPOL project period.

Further information:

• Original news article - PEPPOL project
• ISA Programme - European Commission
• Related ePractice event notice- IT: 7th PEPPOL Conference