ACTIVITIES :: eTen :: Projects :: Projects of the Month :: SPES (April 2004)
April 2004 Project of the Month: SPES
SPES – Setting Processes for Electronic Signatures in European Cities
Issues being addressed
SPES promotes the adoption and full exploitation of the digital
signature by Public Administrations, whilst implementing real applications and
best practices. These are aimed at a large number of end users of the services
which are provided by the Municipalities and are at a trans-European level. The
initial focus of the work was upon the selection of the applications and
services to be deployed, integrating the digital signature into the customised
or newly developed applications.
The main critical success factor is the acceptance and use of the digital
signatures by the final users of the services being provided by the
municipalities, both citizens and businesses. The outcome will also be of use to
other public authorities which might wish to take up these applications
developed. The service, provided across four EU countries –Denmark, Germany,
Italy, and the UK, can strengthen the trans-national relationships among cities,
due to the opportunities arising from the common trusted environment for digital
signature and from the model arising from this collaboration. A network allowing
trusted exchange of documents between partners can thus contribute to European
cohesion and to the acceptance of digital signatures. Each country is committed
to implementing the Digital Signature infrastructure and has started doing so.
Both local and more widespread obstacles to a general take-up are identified.
Some of these obstacles are in fact quite specific to the local situation,
whilst others are common across the EU and hence the reason for involving
participants from different countries.
Objectives
The main goal of SPES is to accelerate the introduction of the
digital signature in Public Administrations. The project is deploying the
applications/services developed through a cross fertilisation process among the
participating administrations, utilising the Business & Organisation Model
developed within the eTEN “e-GAP” project. The digital signature is being
integrated into these applications, some being customised, others being
developed from scratch. Furthermore SPES implements a model organisational
structure for the Registration Authority which is needed to issue and manage the
digital certificates. It is rolling out the internal/web-services to end users
(Administration, Citizens, Enterprises, Professional Organisations, etc).
Finally the project has started to define a model of a Bridge Certification
Authority, to ensure the cross-certification among the Certification Authorities
involved across Europe.
In SPES, there are four Public Administrations - the cities of Saarbrücken (D),
Bologna and Prato (I), and Sheffield (UK) - with a consultancy from a fifth -the
city of Naestved (DK). They are supported by five Service Companies All
co-operate in order to accelerate the introduction of the Digital Signature in
the Public Sector of European Countries. The clear goal is to ensure that a
certificate released in one country by a Trusted Third Party can be accepted all
over Europe.
Achievements
The SPES project will have considerable beneficial socio-economic effects. These include improved services to citizens, positive effects on the local economies of the municipalities and a boost for local industry, with job creation in service providers and SMEs. There will also be a general benefit to the local communities, with an overall improvement in the quality of life of the personnel involved.
The cities have analysed the applications available and/or to be developed within SPES, in which to integrate the digital signature. Examples of services are:
- Building a local tax account system (Prato); Building permits management (Bologna); Permission for establishment of gravestones (Saarbrücken); E-Voting (Sheffield).
Some of these services are already operational in the
participating cities, some others are in the final phase of testing with the
users and will be launched shortly.
All participating cities have now completed the preparations to become
Registration Authorities, and are either already issuing certificates to their
citizens, or will start this process soon.
A particular challenge to the participating administrations is the integration
of the digital signatures into the internal workflow of the organization. All
partners are working on the technical solutions, and intend to launch the
services shortly.
Reference data
Dedicated Web site: http://www.spesproject.org
Project reference: eTEN- 28034
Contract type: Initial Deployment
Start date: 1 November 2002
Duration: 24 months
End date: 29 October 2004