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The Future is Reuse of the CEF Building Blocks! Download the Presentation Now
Thomas FILLIS posted on Jul 27, 2017

The future is reuse of the CEF Building Blocks! Download the Presentation Now

European Commission, 2017

Reuse is much more than a buzzword at CEF Digital 2018. The European Commission, in collaboration with the EU Member States, provides the CEF building blocks as a collection of specifications, software and services structured in a service offering that allow digital (public) services across borders and sectors.

These building blocks are supporting the creation of a vibrant Digital Single Market across Europe by allowing digital services to be available across-borders in a seamless fashion. Reuse of the CEF building blocks and similar solutions have been shown to reduce costs, shorten time to market and promote simplification.

Several building blocks support the implementation of the eIDAS Regulation on trust services in the internal market, such as eID, eSignature and eDelivery.

If you are a public administration wanting to enable your services across borders, a Trust Service Provider wanting to expand your market or an EU-wide initiative looking for ways to connect different participants in the Member States, the CEF building blocks will definitely be of interest to you.

The attached slides will show you their dedicated service offerings and how you and/or your organisation stand to benefit from them.


CEF eDelivery: Modularization of e-SENS AS4 Profile Proposed
Thomas FILLIS posted on Jul 26, 2017

CEF eDelivery: Modularization of e-SENS AS4 Profile Proposed

European Commission, 2017


The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eDelivery is a network of nodes for digital communications. It is based on a distributed model where every participant becomes a node using standard transport protocols and security policies. It helps public administrations to exchange electronic data and documents with other public administrations, businesses and citizens, in an interoperable, secure, reliable and trusted way.

The CEF eDelivery solution is based on a distributed model called the “4-corner model”. In this model, the back-end systems of the users don’t exchange data directly with each other but do this through Access Points. These Access Points are conformant to the same technical specifications and therefore capable of communicating with each other.

CEF eDelivery e-SENS AS4 profile and the ENTSOG AS4 profile of the European energy sector have strong similarities.

Consequently, the European Commission proposes to modularise its profile into a common core module with a number of optional, independent add-on modules. This will lead to a larger combined market for providers of AS4 solutions and at the same time continuity and backward compatibility with the previous versions of the e-SENS and ENTSOG profiles for which the market already provides solutions and which are currently in production.

This modularisation will subsequently increase choice of supplier to public administrations and other users. The core module is domain-independent and is in itself already sufficiently complete for most projects. Furthermore, the new extensibility option will make it possible for projects to create additional modules as required.

 The proposed evolution of the e-SENS AS4 profile of CEF:

  • Has no impact on existing implementations because no existing functionality is removed or changed. Hence, implementations currently conformant to e-SENS AS4 will continue to be conformant independently of the modular profile.
  • The add-on modules derived from the e-SENS AS4 profile provide continuity to current and future users of the features specified in those modules. In the future, additional modules can be added to provide additional optional features without impacting current users and implementations that do not use those features.

The proposal is described in the CEF eDelivery User Community. It provides a detailed analysis of the profiles and describes the impact of the modularization on conformance, the profile test assertions and the conformance testing service. It also provides a roadmap for the proposed updates. Comments on the content of the proposal can be sent by email to CEF-EDELIVERY-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu by Friday 08/09/2017.

When providing feedback, please explicitly indicate if you want your feedback to be treated confidentially.



CEF eID Presented at the Identity Management Conference in London, UK
Rory ASTON JAMES posted on Jul 24, 2017

CEF eID Presented at the Identity Management Conference in London, UK

Alice Vasilescu - European Commission at Identity Management June 2017


The Identity Management (IDM) Conference, organized by Whitehall Media, took place on 21st June 2017 at the Victoria Park Plaza Hotel in London, United Kingdom.

The conference covered areas such as authentication, authorisation, access, cloud computing challenges, data governance data loss prevention, encryption techniques and enterprise mobility and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) risks.

The European Commission's Alice Vasilescu presented the Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market, commonly known as the eIDAS Regulation. She noted that cross-border authentication, as a result of the eIDAS Regulation, benefits administrations, businesses and also citizens. She noted that "allowing a citizen no matter where they are in Europe to access online services will save money and time". Ms. Vasilescu also elaborated on major milestones in the area of cross-border trust services within the EU Member States, such as the pre-notification of Germany's national eID scheme to become part of the eIDAS Network. This is in addition to the five Member States which have passed Conformance Testing, with 17 foreseen by the end of 2017.



eIDAS 2018 Municipalities Project
Tinus MICHIELS posted on Jul 11, 2017

CEF TELECOM GRANT BENEFICIARY

The eIDAS 2018 Municipalities Project - Making Dutch online services accessible to European citizens with their eID

Photo by The Creative Exchange

More and more Europeans are using electronic identification means to access public and private online services in their country. But what happens when someone travels or moves to another European country?

The eIDAS regulation addresses the challenge of cross-border recognition of nationally issued eIDs, enabling Europeans to access online public services across Europe seamlessly.


Introduction

By 29 September 2018, online public services requiring electronic identification will have to accept the eID schemes which other European countries have 'notified' for cross-border use.

The CEF eID building block supports the Member States and Service providers in recognising foreign eIDs, in line with the mutual recognition principle and technical specifications set by the eIDAS regulation. Businesses are encouraged to also connect to the eIDAS network in order to make EU consumers benefit from secure and easy identification process.


"Our ultimate goal is to facilitate citizens’ access to online services no matter where they are in Europe, in a secure and familiar way."

Alice Vasilescu, ‎IT Project Officer, Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)


What is the eIDAS 2018 Municipalities Project?

The eIDAS 2018 Municipalities Project1 is one of the early implementations of the mutual recognition principle of European eIDs to access public services introduced by the eIDAS regulation. It enables citizens of EU Member States and EEA countries to electronically prove their identity with their nationally issued eID when seeking access to around 300 services in 81 municipalities across the Netherlands. The solution is currently available for Austrian, German and Belgian eID holders, and should progressively be extended to other countries connecting to the eIDAS network.

What are the benefits of the project?

  • EU and EEA citizens using online public services in the Netherlands will be able to log in directly with their own trusted national eID.
  • Public services are becoming digitally accessible to millions of European residents, students, and seasonal workers², improving user experience and reducing administrative burden.
  • The Netherlands is gaining valuable experience in the acceptance of foreign eIDs in preparation for the 2018 mutual recognition obligation set by the eIDAS regulation.

How do the Building Blocks fit in?

CEF eID supports the Member States in developing interoperable electronic identification solutions for citizens across Europe and encourages public and private service providers to connect to the eIDAS network. Currently, the eIDAS 2018 Municipalities Project is reusing solutions developed by Large Scale pilots and will progressively start reusing services offered by CEF eID. The project received funds under the 2014 and 2015 CEF calls for proposals.

How was the eIDAS 2018 Municipalities Project implemented?

Joran Frik, European Affairs Adviser at Connectis, describes the needs of one such municipality. “For example, in the Municipalities of Voorschoten and Wassenaar, 20% of their service requests are made by EU residents.” This high presence of foreign population creates specific demands for online services. Registration and obtaining of a local eID to accomplish administrative procedures due to their relocation is burdensome for the municipalities and the residents: the possibility of using their nationally issued eID would ease the process.

From the beginning, the project team was convinced of the necessity to leverage the European eIDAS legal framework and interoperability infrastructure for cross-border recognition of eID, rather than building a new system from the ground up.

The project was initially built on STORK 2.0 solution (Large Scale Pilot), offering one of the first interoperable eID infrastructure among participating countries to help build a single European electronic identification and authentication area. The project is progressively establishing cross-border connections with the new eIDAS infrastructure, via the Dutch eIDAS node.

Connecting Europe Facility provides support to Member States in implementing their eIDAS node, providing the project teams with guidance, steering, contact points in other countries and information on new developments.

What are the results?

Preparing to become eIDAS compliant will broaden access to Dutch public services in an efficient, cost-effective way. Administrative tasks which would have once required a physical visit or paper work from EU and EEA residents will be accessible with a simple digital process reusing their nationally issued eID – benefiting public services, businesses and citizens.

Public services of the participating Dutch municipalities are now digitally accessible to a certain number of eID holders (notably from Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, and Finland) and will be accessible to all European eIDs supported by the eIDAS network as of September 2018. Some EU and EEA citizens can now log in directly to Dutch online services with their own trusted eID, instead of requesting a Dutch DigiD. Access to services is now quicker and more convenient, with a consistent user experience.

Joran explains that the development of the access to the Dutch online public services by owners of foreign eID is part of the broader goal of the Netherlands to pursue the digitisation of public services. He says, “We’re not just trying to allow foreign citizens to login using their own eID, but we’re also working to digitise the municipalities’ public service offering as a whole – making it easier for people to use their services.”


"We’re not just trying to allow foreign citizens to login using their own eID, but we’re also working to digitise the municipalities’ public service offering as a whole – making it easier for people to use their services."

Joran Frik, European Affairs Adviser, Connectis


A second eIDAS Municipalities project is now underway, which Joran describes as indication of the success of the first project: “We’re connecting another set of municipalities, which shows that the project is perceived to have been successful – other municipalities are eager to join in.”

Electronic identification by national citizens and residents also benefits businesses that can offer secured and easy access to their services. Through the Connecting Europe Facility, funding is available for businesses that want to integrate eID to their service and leverage the eIDAS infrastructure. For the private sector, electronic identification notably reduces the risk of identity fraud and cuts cost linked to maintenance of front office.

Dutch business owner Leon van Meel said, “Being able to access a wide range of public services at home in the Netherlands but also in a large number of European countries with a single secure login would really help me doing business and supporting customers abroad.”

CEF is actively facilitating the interaction between the Member States and businesses to increase the uptake of eID services. IT Project Officer at Connecting Europe Facility, Alice Vasilescu says, “We are helping the Member States reaching out the private sector and to understand their requirements for different eID use cases – like being able to book a flight ticket online and meet border controls requirements based on eID information or open a bank account online.”

CEF Grants

This project was funded through the following CEF Telecom grants from INEA:

 Read more to learn how you can apply for EU funding for your project. 

Explore More Success Stories and Content

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eIDAS 2018 Municipalities Project

CEF eID

[1] https://eidas2018.eu/dutch-public-sector-leader-in-electronic-identities/

[2] In 2015, there were a little fewer than 11,3 million EU-28 movers.

http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=17165&langId=en

CEF Digital 2018 Presented at Connecting European Chambers
Thomas FILLIS posted on Jul 07, 2017

CEF Digital 2018 Presented at Connecting European Chambers

European Commission, 2017


On Friday 30 June, the European Commission presented the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) building blocks at the third edition of “Connecting European Chambers”, held in the European Parliament, Brussels.

Chambers of Commerce play an important role in supporting beneficiaries submit EU-funding proposals.

The third edition of “Connecting European Chambers” illustrated a number of winning or potentially winning experiences at European level, discussed case studies with the competent services of the European Commission and to boost the exchange of experiences among participants.

To support the Digital Single Market, the CEF programme is funding a set of generic and reusable Digital Service Infrastructures (DSI), also known as building blocks. The CEF building blocks offer basic capabilities that can be reused in any European project to facilitate the delivery of digital public services across borders and sectors. Currently, there are five building blocks: eDelivery, eInvoicing, eID, eSignature and eTranslation.

Grant funding is available to support the uptake of the CEF building blocks. The Innovation & Networks Executive Agency (INEA) provides all the information needed to apply.

Download the presentation:


To see how the CEF building blocks are Connecting Europe,visit CEF Digital 2018 now.


Trusted List Browser Now Available
Thomas FILLIS posted on Jul 05, 2017

Trusted List Browser Now Available



The European Commission is happy to announce the launch of the CEF eSignature Trusted List Browser.

The Trusted List Browser is a web application, available online and hosted by the European Commission, enabling anyone to browse Europe's Trusted Lists (see below), and look for available trust services in Europe. Among these trust services are issuance of qualified certificates for electronic signatures (e-signatures) or seals, qualified timestamping services and so forth.

Since July 2016, trust services in Europe have been governed by the eIDAS Regulation. Under the eIDAS Regulation, to provide qualified trust services, a trust service provider receives a qualified status from a national competent authority and is placed on a national trusted list. These national trusted lists are linked through the European list of trusted lists.. All these lists can now be browsed easily with the Trusted List Browser.

Trusted List Browser has been designed to be mobile-friendly, so it is accessible from virtually any device. Furthermore, the Trusted List Browser will support the use of the EU trust mark. Trust marks can link to Trusted List Browser, allowing any user to verify quickly that a trust service is qualified. Advanced search functionality is planned for the next release of Trusted List Browser.

The newly launched Trusted List Browser complements the Trusted List (TL) Manager and DSS. TL Manager is a tool to help Member States' Trusted List Scheme Operators create and maintain their trusted lists. DSS is an open-source library that facilitates the creation and validation of e-signatures in line with the eIDAS Regulation and related standards.

E-signatures and other trust services are supported by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eSignature building block. The CEF eSignature building block helps public administrations and businesses to accelerate the creation and verification of electronic signatures. Electronic signing allows for the full digitalisation of business processes, eliminating the time and costs of printing, faxing, mailing, copying, scanning and filing in paper formats which presents many disadvantages (such as risk of loss, destruction and incompleteness or need for bulky, physical storage space etc.).

To see how CEF eSignature is Connecting Europe, visit CEF Digital 2018 now.

New version of the CEF Monitoring Framework Guidebook
Thomas FILLIS posted on Jul 03, 2017

New version of the CEF Monitoring Framework Guidebook


Discover what’s new in the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Monitoring Framework in the new version of its Guidebook.

Some of the updates include:

  • The monitoring of the uptake of the services by CEF grant beneficiaries;
  • A new methodology to measure the progress of the milestones;
  • A more detailed description of the uptake and the monitoring processes;
  • The discontinuation of two KPIs (User satisfaction and Relevance of services, planned to be managed via surveys), and a consequent renumbering of the remaining KPIs.

The European Commission invites you to get to know all the changes on the Guidebook itself, some of them already available on the CEF Monitoring dashboard


Funded by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), CEF Digital 2018 promotes the reuse of the CEF building blocks. The CEF building blocks offer basic capabilities that can be reused in any European project to facilitate the delivery of digital public services across borders and sectors. Currently, there are five building blocks: eDelivery, eInvoicing, eID, eSignature and eTranslation.

The CEF building blocks are key enablers of the Digital Single Market, one of the European Commission's political priorities. The Digital Single Market aims to overcome these challenges by creating the right environment for digital networks and services to flourish. This is not only achieved by setting the right regulatory conditions, but also by providing cross-border digital infrastructures and services.