Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market

Author (Corporate)
Series Title
Series Details (2012) 238 final (4.6.12)
Publication Date 04/06/2012
Content Type

Building trust in the online environment is key to economic development. Lack of trust makes consumers, businesses and administrations hesitate to carry out transactions electronically and to adopt new services.

The Digital Agenda for Europe identifies existing barriers to Europe’s digital development and proposes legislation on e-signatures (Key Action 3) and the mutual recognition of e-identification and authentication (Key Action 16), establishing a clear legal framework so as to eliminate fragmentation and the lack of interoperability, enhance digital citizenship and prevent cybercrime.

The proposed legal framework, consisting of a ‘Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market’, seeks to enable secure and seamless electronic interactions between businesses, citizens and public authorities, thereby increasing the effectiveness of public and private online services, e-business and electronic commerce in the EU.

The existing EU legislation, namely Directive 1999/93/EC on a ‘Community framework for electronic signatures’, essentially covers electronic signatures only. There is no comprehensive EU cross-border and cross-sector framework for secure, trustworthy and easy-to-use electronic transactions that encompasses electronic identification, authentication and signatures.

The aim is to enhance existing legislation and to expand it to cover the mutual recognition and acceptance at EU level of notified electronic identification schemes and other essential related electronic trust services.

Source Link http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2012:0238:FIN:EN:PDF
Related Links
EUR-Lex: COM(2012)238: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:238:FIN
European Commission: SWD(2012)135: Impact assessment http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=SWD:2012:0135:FIN:EN:PDF
European Commission: SWD(2012)136: Summary of the impact assessment http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=SWD:2012:0136:FIN:EN:PDF

Subject Categories
Countries / Regions
Record URL https://www.europeansources.info/record/?p=459713