Digitalization: Serbia's VAT return from SEF, new German DPA head, faster EU standards

This week regulators in Serbia, Germany and the EU worked on the same idea: data that businesses already produce should do more of the work for them, without weakening data protection. Here is what happened.

Serbia: VAT return drafted by SEF from January 2027

On 8 October the Serbian Ministry of Finance held a workshop on the preliminary VAT return, in person in Belgrade and streamed on the eFaktura website. The same day it published a document on the data sources for Annex 1 of the preliminary return, showing which data the system uses to fill in the fields automatically.

The preliminary return applies from January 2027, after amendments to the VAT law postponed it by one year. The amended Law on Electronic Invoicing, published in Official Gazette 80/2026, completes the legal framework.

SEF version 4.2.0 has been live in production since 2 October (in the demo environment since 1 October), and the internal technical guide was updated on 1 October. The full list of changes is in a PDF on the eFaktura website.

Germany: a new federal data protection commissioner

Prof. Dr. Moritz Hennemann, a legal scholar elected by the Bundestag in June, became Federal Commissioner for Data Protection (BfDI) on 1 October. Speaking to the Bundestag digital committee on 7 October, he named his priorities: modernising the state in line with data protection and strengthening Germany's and the EU's digital sovereignty. On AI he wants clearer rules on which data processing for model training is allowed. He welcomed the EU "Digital Omnibus" debate and said the GDPR, after about ten years, deserves clarification. He called data brokers "highly problematic" and wants stronger enforcement against unlawful transfers outside the EU.

Germany: health data law in first reading

On 8 October the Bundestag held the first reading of the law on data and digital innovation in healthcare (GeDIG, printed paper 21/8279). It sets rules for using health data for research and innovation, adds a digital medication plan and vaccination overview to the electronic patient record, implements cross-border exchange of prescriptions and lab results under EU Regulation 2025/327, and extends e-prescriptions to home care. The bill now goes to the health committee.

EU: standards in four years instead of six

On 6 October the European Commission proposed revising Standardisation Regulation 1025/2012. The goal is to cut the average time to develop a standard from six to four years, with clearer deadlines and interim deliverables for urgent needs. Standardisation bodies would have to involve SMEs more effectively, and free access to EU standards would be codified through dedicated repositories. The proposal now goes to Parliament and Council.

What it means for your business

1. Clean up your SEF data before 2027. If the preliminary VAT return is wrong, the cause usually sits in invoices or individual VAT records. Align your accounting software with SEF now, not in January.
2. If you serve German clients, check your data transfers. The new BfDI signals tougher enforcement on transfers outside the EU. Know where your CRM, cloud and AI tools store personal data.
3. Standards will be easier to access. Companies building products for the EU market can expect lower compliance costs when standards are free to read.

If you want to connect your systems to SEF or tidy up your data flows before 2027, see our digitalization service or get in touch.