On 23 May 2011, the Secure idenTity acrOss boRders linKed (STORK) project, which aims to implement EU-wide interoperable electronic identities (eIDs), officially announced that Lithuania is now live in the Cross-Border Authentication Platform for Electronic Services Pilot.

In November 2010 it was announced that Lithuania joined the STORK project and interconnection activity has been already completed with Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia, using C-PEPS (Pan-European Proxy Service) and NQC (Non-Qualified Certificate) authentication technology and qualified eSignature certificates for eID verification. The next phase of the pilot will achieve integration with Estonia and Sweden.

The scope of this pilot is to enable online public services to be accessed securely by citizens of member states using their nationally issued eID credentials. It aims to achieve more cooperation between EU Member States, via mutual recognition of their respective national eID schemes. Through technical interoperability with electronic services, the ease-of-use and take up of these services will be improved across national borders.

For Lithuania, this pilot is crucially important as it enables existing online public services to be accessed securely by its citizens working or residing in other Member States. Vice Minister, Ministry of the Interior, Republic of Lithuania, Gintaras Steponas Vysniauskas explained: "As a result of the pilot, citizens will be able to easily access valuable online services provided by Member States using their nationally issued eID credentials."

Mr Vysniauskas stated: "When looking to modernise local, regional and national eGovernment services, some international services can also be considered extremely important for citizens, business and institutions. For this reason, Lithuania is taking an active participating role in this pilot, enhancing our national electronic services and connecting them to a proven interoperability layer for the benefit of our citizens and others in the Union."

STORK Work Package 7 'Communication and Sustainability' Leader and Executive Director of Gov2u, Vasilis Koulolias, commented: "With the hard work of all the partners involved in the [pilot], much progress has been made. We are moving ever closer to creating a reliable and secure technology infrastructure, that will ultimately enable all EU Members States to enjoy the freedom of sharing electronics services, irrespective of national borders."

Lithuania introduced personal eID cards on 1 January 2009 and so far more than 530 000 have been issued to citizens. The cards' contact chip provides means for using the card online as it contains both a certificate for online identification and a qualified certificate for eSignature.

STORK is co-funded by the EU ICT Policy Support Programme under the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP).

Further information:

• Original news article - STORK project
• Cross-Border Authentication Platform for Electronic Services Pilot
• Background information - ePractice eGovernment Factsheet for Lithuania
• Related ePractice news article - EU: Six STORK pilots launched to provide electronic identity interoperability across Europe