The Secure idenTity acrOss boRders linKed (STORK) project published online on 2 March 2010 the latest approved and public project deliverables. The deliverables include reports on process flows, the recently defined pilot-specific and eID common specifications and planning documentation related to five upcoming pilots.

The five pilot projects, involving different countries in each instance, are the following:

• Cross-border Authentication Platform for Electronic Services: a demonstrator showing that cross-border electronic services can operate in a number of Member States. This platform is to be tested on the Belgium's LIMOSA, the German service-bw, the Austrian help.gv portal, the Portuguese Portal do Cidadão and the Estonian integrated citizen portal.
• Safer Chat: the purpose of this project is to promote safe use of the Internet for children and young people, building a platform for a safer online environment where people can communicate online using their eIDs.
• Student Mobility: to facilitate the life of people who want to study in a different member state. It enables foreign students to get access to any online administrative service offered by a particular university using their national eID card of origin for identification purposes.
• Electronic Delivery: to develop cross-border mechanisms for secure online delivery of documents based on the existing domestic infrastructure. The ability to conclude transactional processes electronically is an essential component of eGovernment; it is also required by the Service Directive.
• Change of address: the objective of this project is to assist EU citizens with moving and settling in other EU countries. Not only will it include eID integration but it will also allow citizens to automatically send their new address details to the country in which they previously resided.

The project deliverables can be found on the STORK website in the STORK materials section, together with previously published deliverables.

Commenting on this initiative, the STORK Pilot Coordinator, Alberto Crespo, stated, "as a result of the newly-released technical documentation and once the on-going integration of the Pilots with the Common Interoperability Layer of STORK has been achieved, the main objective will be to conduct a phased-test of the pilot-specific implementations, including real end-users. This will allow the STORK member states to internally assess whether the STORK defined objectives are satisfied up to that point and take the final decision for the Pilots to enter into operation as planned. The STORK Pilots will represent an unprecedented milestone in the collaboration between EU member states in the field of eID interoperability by demonstrating in real life contexts the benefits of cross-border eGovernment services."

Background information

The STORK project is a three-year initiative aiming to enable businesses, citizens and government employees to use their national electronic identities (eID) in any country of the European Union. Such a system will simplify administrative formalities by providing secure online access to public services across EU borders. The five pilot projects to test the proposed eID framework, architecture and common specifications will begin in the mid-2010 and will run for 12 months.

STORK is supported by the European Commission, the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and involves 14 EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the UK and Iceland, as a member of the European Economic Association (EEA).

Further information:

• Original Press Release - STORK project
• STORK materials
• STORK Project - Pilot 1: Cross border authentication platform
• STORK Project - Pilot 2: Safer Chat
• STORK Project - Pilot 3: Student Mobility
• STORK Project - Pilot 4: Electronic Delivery
• STORK Project - Pilot 5: Change of Address
• STORK completes the Framework for Electronic Identity - ePractice news article