What is the Problem? Lack of a European approach in the digitalisation of the public administration

Today, the access to most of the public online services is quite difficult due to the different technical solutions used in the Member States. Public authorities have so far focused on national needs and have not sufficiently taken into account the single market dimension of eGovernment. The electronic barriers created in the past must be eliminated in order to enable citizens and business to fully benefit from the digital single market.

Whey the EU action is required? eGovernment for everyone everywhere:

In a digital single market all European citizens and businesses who so desire should be able to receive by electronic means all services that they are entitled to anywhere in the EU at any time, without administrative burdens. This will facilitate citizens and businesses to enjoy the benefits of full mobility in the EU. Electronic identification and reliable authentication are key enablers of this vision.

Europe needs better administrative cooperation to develop and deploy cross-border public online services. This includes the implementation of seamless e-identification and e-authentication cross borders.

The proposal for a Council and Parliament Decision will address the following:

Member States should agree on a minimum set of principles on mutual recognition of electronic identification and authentication.

Member States should provide eID compliant systems that will support mechanisms to identify and authenticate natural persons together with their different roles.

What will the Commission do?

By the end of 2010

• Adoption of the eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015, calling specifically on eID actions

In 2011:

• Public on-line consultation on e-identification, authentication and signatures
• Analysis of the contributions to the public online consultation
• Socio-economic study on a new Pan-European electronic Identity Infrastructure
• Feasibility study on an electronic identification, authentication and signature policy
• Start up of SSEDIC, an ICT PSP Thematic network on European Digital Identity
• STORK project completed (Large Scale Pilot to establish a European eID interoperability platform)

In 2012:

• Proposal for a Council and Parliamentary Decision

Contact:

mechthild.rohen@ec.europa.eu