The European Comission have invested a lot of money in the development of automised processes that should lower administration costs and help gain a greater contro over financial value chains.
There are a lot of reports written on the status of the market groth as well as ideas on what should help grow the market further.
European Commission » Internal Market » Payment services» e-Invoicing.
There was an EU Expert Group on e-invoicing published in November 2009
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/docs/2009/e-invoicing/report_en.pdf[/private]