The leading European Trust Service Providers met on June 22 and 23, 2020 in a virtual conference with the European Commission and the European Parliament. The aim was to discuss about the evolution of the Digital Single Market and harmonized implementation and recognition of eIDAS Regulation.
The European Signature Dialog is committed to making digital interactions across Europe secure – between authorities, companies and private users. A look at the COVID 19 outbreak clearly shows that trustworthy digital infrastructures are essential to keep companies going, to remain internationally competitive and to mitigate the far-reaching negative effects on the overall economy.
Strengthening the Digital Single Market
The ESD, which is made up of the leading European Trust Service Providers, appeals to EU legislators to strengthen and propagate the eIDAS regulation as a key enabler of a resilient digital economy. The dialog between the ESD, the European Commission and the European Parliament focused not only on evolution proposals for the eIDAS regulation (EU Reg 910/2014), but also on the tools and the regulatory frameworks that could reinforce EU citizens’ rights to trust and security when accessing online services.
The dialogue was prompted by the public consultation to review the eIDAS Regulation and to raise attention to the attempts of the entities that are not trust service providers to influence the use of the qualified trust services in the EU.
Harmonized application of eIDAS Regulation
eIDAS regulation is due to be reviewed. The public consultation for this is under preparation. Among the main topics are the creation of a truly European approach for the implementation of the Regulation, with reduced National influences and less room for interpretation. Harmonization is the key word for the implementation of the Regulation.
“Europe can be proud of its excellent data protection landscape. Many countries around the world have aligned their own legislation with the EU’s strong data protection framework. Mirroring this success, the EU should actively promote its model of a safe, secure and trustworthy digital economy”, said Michael Butz, Managing Director of the Austrian A-Trust and Chairman of the European Signature Dialog.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has focused the attention of the companies on the trust services defined by the eIDAS regulation. This gave rise to the need to clarify some of its provisions and to limit the sometimes inappropriate intrusions of the national legislation of each member state on the provisions of the regulation. The consultation of the European Commission and of the European Parliament with the industry are mandatory to define an efficient and functional legal framework. certSIGN is vastly experienced in defining the technical and legal aspects of the electronic signature both in Romania and at European level and is active in the field of trust services standardization.”, stated Adrian Floarea, CEO of certSIGN.
About the European Signature Dialog
ESD is a platform of major European electronic signature providers, the Romanian company certSIGN being one of them. The European Signature Dialog has quickly established itself as one of the EU Commission's most important dialog partners and has been an expert pool for digital trust services since it was founded. The aim of the ESD is to empower users to move safely through the digital world.
