New eIDAS Regulation has started

Today FutureTrust announced that it is actively supporting the practical implementation of the new eIDAS Regulation which comes into effect across all 28 EU Member States today, replacing the 15-year-old eSignature Directive. The EC-funded project involves the design and development of innovative open source components and services complementing the eIDAS Regulation and integrating them with similar trust services from other regions worldwide.

Under the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon 2020), the objective of FutureTrust is to ease the utilization of eID and trust services, paving the way for global interoperability of trustworthy and legally significant electronic services. Through close collaboration the 16 project partners will support the practical implementation of the eIDAS regulation by:

• Addressing the need for globally interoperable solutions through basic research with respect to the foundations of trust and trustworthiness, with the aim of developing new, widely compatible trust models or improving existing models.
• Actively driving the standardization process.
• Providing Open Source software components and trustworthy services as a functional base for fast adoption of standards and solutions.

Prof. Dr. Jörg Schwenk, coordinator of the FutureTrust project, states: “That the eIDAS Regulation is completely in force starting today marks a major milestone for trust services and the progress towards a digital single market for Europe. The aim of FutureTrust is to support the practical implementation of eIDAS by demonstrating the positive business cases for the reliance on electronic signatures, sealing services, the long-term authenticity of data and documents and all with a focus on accountability, transparency, usability and last but not least security.”

The FutureTrust project partners are Ruhr University Bochum, ecsec GmbH, Arhs Spikeseed, EEMA, The Federal Computing Center of Austria, Federal Office of Administration Germany, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, University of Southampton, Multicert, Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, Trustable Ltd., The Secure Information Technology Center, Public Service Development Agency, Tubitak, Lawtrust and Ministry of Interior Republic of Serbia.

The Brussels-based independent think tank – EEMA, is charged with the dissemination of information relating to the FutureTrust project across EU Member States and building an open community of people interested in eIDAS related matters. “We are pleased to launch the http://eID.AS portal today and hereby invite all subject matter experts, trust service providers, eID service providers, vendors and especially users of eIDAS related technologies to join the emerging eIDAS community", added Jon Shamah, Chair of EEMA.

About the FutureTrust project

Against the background of the regulation 2014/910/EU on electronic identification (eID) and trusted services for electronic transactions in the internal market (eIDAS), the FutureTrust project, which is funded within the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon 2020) under Grant Agreement No. 700542, aims at supporting the practical implementation of the regulation in Europe and beyond.

For this purpose the FutureTrust project will address the need for globally interoperable solutions through basic research with respect to the foundations of trust and trustworthiness, actively support the standardization process in relevant areas, and provide Open Source software components and trustworthy services which will ease the use of eID and electronic signature technology in real world applications. In particular the FutureTrust project will extend the existing European Trust Service Status List (TSL) infrastructure towards a “Global Trust List”, develop a comprehensive Open Source Validation Service as well as a scalable Preservation Service for electronic signatures and seals and will provide components for the eID-based application for qualified certificates across borders, and for the trustworthy creation of remote signatures and seals in a mobile environment. The present contribution provides an overview of the FutureTrust project and invites further stakeholders to actively participate as associated partners and contribute to the development of future trust services for trustworthy global transactions.

FutureTrust

About the eIDAS portal

The eIDAS portal provides neutral information with respect to the background and implementation of the eIDAS-Regulation (EU) 2014/910 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market.

eIDAS

Contact

Jon Shamah
FutureTrust Partner Manager
jon.shamah@eema.org