The European Commission has adopted an Action Plan on e-signatures and e-identification to facilitate the provision of cross-border public services in the Single Market.

In the framework of the ‘Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs’, the EU has committed itself to improving the legal and administrative environment with the aim of unlocking business potential. Bringing public administrations online and enabling the cross-border communication of enterprises and individuals with them, favours entrepreneurship and facilitates the citizen’s contact with public authorities.

Major barriers to cross-border access to the electronic public services are linked to the use of electronic identification and signatures. Since the implementation of electronic identification in each Member State has been focusing very much on national needs and means, the main barrier for an electronic identification is the lack of interoperability, either legal, technical or organizational. This approach creates new ‘e-barriers’ to cross-border markets as it limits access for enterprises and individuals from other Member States to those public services. In addition, Member States run the risk of not complying with their legal obligations under EU legislation.

The current European Union framework in the context of the Action Plan in question offers horizontal and sectoral instruments to facilitate and enhance the use of e-signatures and e-identification. The e-Signatures Directive establishes the legal recognition of electronic signatures and a legal framework to promote their interoperability.

The objective of this Action Plan is to offer a comprehensive and pragmatic framework to achieve interoperable e-signatures and e-identification, which will simplify access of enterprises and citizens to cross-border electronic public services. To achieve this objective, the Action Plan focuses on a number of practical, organisational and technical issues, complementing the existing legal framework.

The Commission, in close collaboration with Member States will monitor the implementation of the Plan, aiming to ensure the coherence of the suggested measures, of the various legislative requirements at EU level and of the relevant operational projects. It will also assess whether further horizontal and/or sectoral initiatives are needed.


Further information:

• Commission’s Directorate-General for Communication’s midday briefing of 2 December 2008 
• Action Plan on e-signatures and e-identification to facilitate the provision of cross-border public services in the Single Market – ePractice library 
• Report on the operation of Directive 1999/93/EC on a Community framework for
  electronic signatures