Other major countries that have adopted eInvoicing have kept it optional for a few reasons:

- It's a barrier for small businesses, or those which seldomly invoice, such as craft and hobby businesses (particularly remote online businesses).

- Large companies see eInvoicing as a cost saving method and force it upon their vendors. This reduces the need to make it mandatory and provides a financial incentive for companies to adopt eInvoicing (i.e. more carrot, less stick.)

The EU has a solid trend of finding ways to self-harm when introducing reforms. This self-harm story segue's into how the EU is considering implementing an Australian-style social media restriction for children:

Quote from abc.net.au below:

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told the audience she had been "inspired" by Australia's "bold" move to introduce the ban.

"As a mother of seven children and grandmother of five, I share their view," she said.

The European Parliament has since passed a non-legislative report that would set a minimum age of 16 for social media, while allowing those aged 13 to 15 with parental consent.

-- end quote --

Here the EU is walking down the path of another bad implementation.

Limiting the age for social media only works if it's mandatory for all children, otherwise kids will just pester their parents for access. In the EU's plan the parents become the "bad guy" in that arrangement, the home becomes the battleground for obtaining access to social media.

The EU's plan also means that social media remains relevant for young people, where access may be needed for arranging social activities and sports, and those which don't have it are either inconvenienced or miss out. Meanwhile the Australian implementation removes that purpose as no kids are allowed on the platform, thus there are no "haves" and "have nots" kids.

Finally, and probably most importantly, advertisers, data brokers, and bad actors will still continue to target children through social media networks, since they will still be there in useful numbers.

Yea, but EU can of course have a common standard and not make it mandatory. It’s not more strange than US making federal standard vs different standards in each state.