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Commission frustrated that people ignore digital signatures


EU citizens and businesses have been reluctant to make use of electronic signature tools, despite the creation of a Community framework to support their legal admissibility – and the European Commission fears the limited take-up is hindering e-commerce.

Advert: Infosecurity Europe, 25-27 April 2006, Olympia, LondonOn Friday the European Commission published a progress report on a Directive of 1999 that created a Community framework for electronic signatures.

Signing an email message by typing your name is a form of electronic signature; but the focus of the Commission's concern is the low take-up of more secure signatures, notably digital signatures that use Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) – a variety of signature described in the Directive as an 'advanced electronic signature'.

“I am not fully satisfied with the take-up of electronic signatures in Europe,” said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. “Much work still has to be done in particular to make signatures work across borders.”

Digital signatures – unlike simpler forms of electronic signature – apply a seal to an electronic document that allows the recipient to be certain of the identity of the sender and they can also confirm that the document has not been tampered with since it was signed.

The Commission saw that such signatures would be useful in encouraging trade in goods and services via the internet and in 1999 pushed through its Directive setting up a Community framework for electronic signatures. This has now been implemented in all the 25 Member States.

However, a progress report into the operation of the Directive has revealed that the market for advanced electronic signatures backed by 'qualified certificates' from so-called Certification Service Providers has been much slower to take off than expected.

The Commission says the reason appears to be largely economic. According to the report, “service providers have little incentive to develop multi-application electronic signature and prefer to offer solutions for their own services, for instance, solutions developed by the banking sector. This slows down the process of developing interoperable solutions.”

But the report is optimistic, explaining that the growing use of electronic ID cards is likely to drive demand in the future. An electronic ID card can be used both as an identification document and to provide online access to public services for citizens. In most cases, these ID cards will serve to identify the holder and authenticate the signature, as well as enabling the holder to sign.

The use of electronic signatures in e-government services, such as online income tax returns, and in electronic public procurement and ID management are also likely to be influential, according to the report.

The report concludes that the Directive has introduced legal certainty with respect to the general admissibility of electronic signatures and continues to provide, for the moment, a valid basis for electronic signatures in the internal market.

But the Commission is keen to further encourage the development of e-signatures services and applications.

It plans to encourage further standardisation work in order to promote the interoperability of e-signature systems within and across borders and the use of all kinds of technologies for qualified electronic signature in the single market.

It intends to hold a series of meetings with EU Member State experts and stakeholders to consider possible complementary measures, to address, where appropriate: any differences among national laws transposing the e-signatures Directive that could fragment the single market, any clarifications needed in specific articles of the e-signatures Directive and any technical and standardisation work needed to improve the cross-border interoperability of e-signature systems.

The Commission also plans to prepare a report on standards for electronic signatures in 2006 to see whether further regulatory measures by the EU could be required.

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