CEF eID:  Towards a smooth identification and authentication process on online public services across Europe

European Commission, 2018

How can we make the digital identification and authentication of European citizens as smooth as possible when accessing online public services abroad? The European Commission and Member States answer this question with the eIDAS regulation on trust services in the internal market. eIDAS allows for the reuse of nationally-issued electronic identity (eID) to access online public services in other European countries.

In recent years, Member States worked hard to promote, and ensure, technical interoperability between their electronic identification schemes. Yet, this does not guarantee the uptake of electronic identification among the general public. Only user-friendly applications and well thought through websites will encourage citizens to start using their electronic identity to access eGovernment services. This becomes even more important when considering the cross-border context, where additional challenges for the citizen, such as differences in the administrative procedures and language barriers, exist. 

Member States are now closely collaborating to ensure that citizens are properly informed and guided through the different steps of the identification and authentication process when using their national eID to access foreign online services. The challenge is to ensure that across Member States there is a common approach to user experience for the cross-border user journey. This means the Member States must collectively anticipate the potential difficulties users may experience, and together define a set of best practice design guidelines for the cross-border user journey. 

On 6 April 2018, 18 representatives from 11 Member States gathered to work on this challenge. The objective of the workshop was to align on a set of common user experience recommendations to apply to the eID cross-border user journey enabled through eIDAS. The workshop was hosted by the Danish Agency for Digitisation in Copenhagen. The day started with a stock-take of the design work already completed towards the cross-border authentication journey, with each Member State in attendance presenting their respective designs. The afternoon was dedicated to a group activity during which the participants explored common user problems, identified potential solutions to these problems and agreed on the set of common UX recommendations.

Results of the group activity on common user problems and solutions

Specifically, the workshop focused on aligning the Member States' approach towards several key elements of the authentication journey. The takeaways from the discussion include:

• Discovery: On a foreign government website, it is important that users actually understand that they can reuse their nationally-issued eIDs to authenticate to the service (a very new concept for most). This understanding can be facilitated by working on providing clear explanation and being careful about the terminology used (e.g. focusing on explaining in clear language the possibility to log-in with a foreign national eID, rather than relying on terms that people do not relate to, such as 'eIDAS').
• Country / eID selection: Once users understand that they can reuse their national solutions, they need to select the specific scheme they have. At the moment there are only a few schemes available that have been pre-notified, but the design adopted by the Member States needs to be scalable to allow for more eID schemes in the future. Member States explored the best ways to present information to the user which will maximise correct navigation (e.g. presenting in parallel the country flags and associated eID scheme names and logos).
• Attribute consent: At the moment, Member States have developed different solutions to collect the consent of users regarding the sharing of their identification attributes. Sometimes this consent is requested multiple times. Information about why the attributes are collected and which additional attributes are necessary to access the service in question needs to be crystal clear to avoid frustration and abandonment of the process.
• Use of the service: The eIDAS regulation is introducing a mutual recognition of eIDs across Europe. All online public services requesting secure electronic identification (Level of Assurance of substantial and above) need to provide the possibility to log-in with any foreign eID scheme that has been notified under eIDAS. However, successful authentication to a government website does not necessarily mean a foreign citizen will be eligible to benefit from the specific service; in many cases more is requested of the citizen, notably registration in the national register of the country and additional documents to prove their rights. Member States are therefore investigating how best to inform users in a convenient manner of the steps they may need to take in order to be able to actually use the service requested, and to avoid any frustration.

In the upcoming months, the Member States will continue to collaborate on these issues and more user testing is expected to identify the most successful approach. User research is a continuous process that requires an important mindset shift in the way public services are designed and delivered in Europe. With regard to cross-border eID, the Member States are committed to improvement by implementing user-centric principles and developing tools to exchange best practices and key information with their European colleagues. Ultimately this contributes to the vision of a Digital Single Market by removing non-necessary barriers to online transactions, so that citizens can feel just like at home when using foreign public services online.

CEF eInvoicing: New live, interactive webinar series launched

European Commission, 2018

The CEF eInvoicing team are happy to announce a second webinar series, exploring electronic invoicing (eInvoicing) respecting the recently published European standard.

The first  interactive webinar will take place on Tuesday, 19 June 2018 - 10:00 - 11:30 (CET). Participants to this webinar will learn about:

• The CIUS concept - its meaning, usage, compliance and documentation 
• PEPPOL CIUS - challenges and country-specific requirements

European legislation (Directive 2014/55/EU on eInvoicing in public procurement) calls for a European standard on eInvoicing prevent the proliferation of differing eInvoices in the Single Market. Working at a syntax level, the European standard helps increase cross-border interoperability and so support business and administration in Europe.

The second webinar series will adopt an interactive format, allowing participants to engage directly with eInvoicing experts, providing participants with the opportunity to ask any specific questions about the topics under discussion.

Participants will also have the opportunity to vote and suggest any topics to be covered during these new webinar series.

Register

The CEF eInvoicing building block serves to support public administrations in complying with the aforementioned eInvoicing Directive, and helps solution providers adapt their services accordingly. To do so, CEF eInvoicing makes the following services available:

• eInvoicing Service Desk
• eInvoicing on-site and remote Trainings
• eInvoicing Readiness Checker
• eInvoicing Conformance Testing

You can also access all the presentations and webinar recordings from the previous series in the dedicated pages.

Progress made towards mutual recognition of eID schemes in Europe

Last months saw remarkable progress towards the mutual recognition of electronic identification schemes across the European Union. Four countries have pre-notified their eID schemes, namely Spain, Luxembourg, Estonia and Croatia, following Italy’s pre-notification last November.

Pre-notification is the first of three steps introduced by the Regulation (EU) N°910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market (known as the eIDAS Regulation) aiming at building trust between the Member States and ensuring the interoperability and security of notified eID schemes.

Six months prior to the indented notification date, Member States are sharing amongst themselves information relating to their eID schemes, including: a description of the solution, information about the identity provider and the estimated level of assurance, explanation about the liability regime and responsibility of the different authorities, description of the procedure to obtain and revoke an eID and a description of the online authentication process.

The information shared by Member States will provide input for the peer review process, allowing the eID scheme to be assessed against the quality and security requirements laid out by the eIDAS Regulation.

On 20 February 2018, Spain pre-notified its electronic ID card (DNI Electrónico) which features, in its latest version (3.0), a new operating system and a dual interface chip. This allows for an electronic signature to be taken both in a contact-based and contactless mode. The DNIe is compulsory for all Spanish citizens over 14 years of age and residing in the country. The acceptance of the e-DNI as identification means is mandatory for all electronic public services in Spain, may they be national, regional or local and can also be used to access online private services such as banking, telecom operators, etc...

DNI Electrónico, specimen

On 26 February 2018, Luxembourg pre-notified its Luxembourg eID card, consisting in a contactless smartcard. The Luxembourg ID card is compulsory for all Luxembourgish citizens above 15 years old and residing in the country. The activation of the certificates on the national ID card has to be specifically requested when obtained. Citizens can use this identification mean as a way to access public and private online services in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg eID, specimen

On 27 February 2018, Estonia notified six types of Estonian eID: the ID card, the RP card, the diplomatic identity card, Digi-ID, e-Residency Digi-ID, and Mobiil-ID. The first three means are both physical identification documents and digital identities, while the three latter are meant for online identification only. The national ID card is mandatory for Estonians over the age of 15. Mobile-ID is voluntary but can only be activated by owners of a national eID card. The mobile solution has been highly welcomed by the citizens with 12,2% of voters use Mobile-ID.

Estonia eID, specimen

On 28 February, Croatia announced the prenotification of its eID scheme, the National Identification and Authentication System (NIAS) using as an identification means the Croatian personal identity card (eOI). Personal identification data is both printed on the card and electronically stored in the chip. The NIAS is part of the state information system called e-Citizens that includes the Central Government Portal (Gov.hr) system which gather all public services available and Personal User Box (OKP) system.

Croatian NIAS, specimen

The five countries (including Italy) have started a three-month peer-review process – conducted on a voluntary basis by Member States participating in the Cooperation Network – followed by the formal notification.  We expect that in total six eID schemes (cf. Germany’s notification last September) will be notified under eIDAS regulation by 29 September 2018. As of this date, EU Member States will be required to recognise the notified eIDS of other Member States to access public online services requesting electronic identification at the national level.

New version of CEF eSignature Trusted List Browser (version 1.2) Available Now

eSignatures are Connecting Europe

The European Commission is happy to announce the release of the latest version (1.2) of the CEF eSignature Trusted List Browser.

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

The latest version of the Trusted List Browser provides additional search features expanding the basic search functionality already in place. The user can now choose to search by the name of a trust service, filtering the results on the go. One can also search by uploading a signed file or certificate to the browser. This feature enables finding the trust service that issued the provided certificate. If the user uploads a signed file, the signing certificate(s) present in the file is/are extracted first.

The Trusted List Browser has been designed to be mobile-friendly, so it is accessible from virtually any device. Furthermore, the Trusted List Browser supports the use of the EU trust mark. Trust marks can link to the Trusted List Browser, allowing any user to verify quickly that a trust service is qualified.

E-signatures and other trust services are supported by the Connecting Europe Facility's (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.).

Visit Trusted List Browser

Sign up as a CEF Telecom evaluation expert

The Innovation & Networks Executive Agency (INEA) is looking for experts to assess Telecom project proposals submitted for EU funding.

INEA is responsible for organising Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) calls for proposals.

Experts will be called to evaluate the project proposals against award criteria as published in the call text. The selected experts will assess the project proposals submitted for the CEF Telecom calls published in 2018. Guidance is provided by INEA on how to assess each individual criterion.

The expert assignment offers you:

• New 'EU stamped' experience on your CV
• The possibility to refresh your financial due diligence evaluation skills
• Enhanced employability through more diverse knowledge of the EU funding programmes
• Great networking opportunities with peers and representatives from the EU institutions
• An overview of major projects that will shape the future of European telecom infrastructur

Sign up

On 4 May 2018, INEA launched calls for proposals providing an indicative €10.5 million supporting the reuse and uptake of CEEF eDelivery, eInvoicing and eTranslation. The Deadline for submissions is 18 September 2018.

 A Connecting Europe Success Story

Grant Funding for CEF eTranslation Now Available

European Commission 2018

Don't miss the 2018-2, 2018-3 and 2018-5 CEF Telecom calls Virtual Info Day on Thursday, 17 May 2018- 10:00

Supported by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the call for proposals (CEF-TC-2018-2) provides grant funding of up to € 5 million to support the adoption of CEF eTranslation in your organisation. CEF funding covers up to 75% of the implementation costs. The deadline for applications is 18 September 2018.

Multilingualism  is  one  of  the  greatest  assets  of  cultural  diversity  in  Europe  and,  at the  same time,  one  of  the  most  substantial  challenges  for  the  creation  of  a  truly  integrated  EU.

CEF eTranslation helps European and national public administrations exchange information across language barriers in the EU, by providing machine translation capabilities that will enable all Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs) to be multilingual.

The eTranslation service allows users to instantly translate words, sentences, full documents, and websites from one language to another. It provides a machine translation service between any pair of EU official languages, Icelandic and Norwegian (Bokmål). Translations are performed at speeds of up to one sentence per second – infinitely faster than any human can translate.

Below you will find some key information needed to submit a grant proposal. However, you will need to read thoroughly the Call Text and supporting documentation, which outlines the objectives of the grant funding and how to apply, before submission. The Innovation & Networks Executive Agency (INEA) provides the call text and supporting information on grants. INEA is responsible for organising CEF calls for proposals.

Broadly, CEF eTranslation funding in 2018 supports the following activities:

• Collaborative language resource projects to make language resource provision to CEF eTranslation easier. This will include identification, processing (anonymization, aggregation, alignment, conversion, etc.) and collecting language resources in the Member States. Priority will be given to language resources in those CEF languages for which there is not enough data available to offer good quality automated translation services (so called "under-resourced" languages).  Priority  will  also  be  given  to language resources in the domains relevant for the CEF Digital 2018 Service Infrastructures (DSIs), taking into account the demand for addressing the specific language or DSI.  Generic language resources may also be targeted to improve the overall quality of eTranslation for a broader set of text styles and to extend its lexical coverage.
• Integration projects to make online services multilingual with existing technology, working on real systems (CEF DSIs and/or national online services and portals related to CEF DSI services). Projects are expected to use the eTranslation service (alone or in combination with other non-commercial/commercial tools and services) and are expected to become fully functional and integrated in the relevant services within the duration of the project.

Interested in applying? Be sure to check you fulfil the necessary submission criteria (as defined in the 2018 Work Programme and Article 9 of the CEF Regulation):

• The proposal must include the agreement of the concerned Member State(s);
• The  composition  of  the  proposing  consortium  complies  with  the  requirements  set  out  in the 2018 Work Programme and call text;
• The proposal is submitted by legal persons as referred to in section 4.3.1 of the 2018 Work Programme

The  proposals  will  be  evaluated  on  the  basis  of  three  criteria:  ‘Relevance’, ‘Quality and efficiency of the implementation’ and ‘Impact’.

The timetable for this call for proposals is as follows:

Apply Now!

Still have questions?

• Register for the  2018-2 CEF Telecom calls Virtual Info Day;

• Send an email to INEA-CEF-TELECOMCALLS@ec.europa.eu;
• Browse INEA's Frequently Asked Questions;
• Follow INEA on Twitter @inea_eu or LinkedIn or visit the Build a Consortium LinkedIn group;

Grant Funding for CEF eInvoicing Available: Last call prior to legal deadline!

European Commission 2018

Don't miss the 2018-2 CEF Telecom calls Virtual Info Day Thursday, 17. May 2018- 10:00

Financed by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the call for proposals (CEF-TC-2018-2) provides grant funding of up to € 5 million to support the adoption of compliant eInvoicing solutions by both public and private entities. CEF funding covers up to 75% of the costs of implementation. The deadline for applications is 18 September 2018.

This is your last chance to receive CEF grant funding before 18 April 2019, the legal deadline for Member States to transpose into national law and implement Directive 2014/55/EU (on eInvoicing in public procurement).

The Directive calls for the creation of a European standard on eInvoicing. The European standard on eInvoicing helps prevent the proliferation of differing eInvoices. Working at a syntax level, it helps increase cross-border interoperability and so support business and administration in Europe.

Below you will find key information needed to submit a grant proposal. However, you will need to read the Call Text, which outlines the objectives of the grant funding and how to apply, before submission. The Innovation & Networks Executive Agency (INEA) provides the call text and supporting information grants. INEA is responsible for organising CEF calls for proposals.

Proposals must address one or both of the following objectives:

1. Uptake of eInvoicing solutions compliant with the European standard and its ancillary deliverables by public authorities (central, regional, and local);
2. Update of existing eInvoicing solutions compliant with the European standard and its ancillary deliverables. For example, such updates should allow end-to-end eProcurement to be ensured through the integration of Invoicing modules in eProcurement platforms or solutions aiming at full automation, or other innovative solutions such as real-time eInvoicing/reporting;

Priority will be given to projects coming from countries that are lagging behind in terms of eInvoicing maturity as well as to innovative solutions coming from all countries.

All proposals must also:

• Demonstrate that CEF funding is necessary to increase the applicants' Invoicing readiness for the support of the European standard;
• Commit to ensuring full compliance with the European standard and to implement both syntaxes (UBL 2.1 and CII) of the European standard;
• Address eDelivery for the purpose of document delivery by either deploying the CEF eDelivery Building Block, or proving the use of eDelivery through a service provider for cross-border communication as the minimal accepted scope;

As noted in the 2018 Work Programme, potential applicants should keep the following in mind:

• The proposal must include the agreement of the concerned Member State(s);
• The  composition  of  the  proposing  consortium  complies  with  the  requirements which re clearly explained in both the 2018 Work Programme and Call Text;
• The proposal is submitted by legal persons

The  proposals  will  be  evaluated  on  the  basis  of  three  criteria:  ‘Relevance’, ‘Quality and efficiency of the implementation’ and ‘Impact’.

The timetable for this call for proposals is as follows:

Apply Now!

Still have questions?

• Register for the  2018-2 CEF Telecom calls Virtual Info Day;

• Send an email to INEA-CEF-TELECOMCALLS@ec.europa.eu;
• Browse INEA's Frequently Asked Questions;
• Follow INEA on Twitter @inea_eu or LinkedIn or visit the Build a Consortium LinkedIn group;

Grant Funding for CEF eDelivery Now Available

European Commission, 2018

Don't miss the 2018-2, 2018-3 and 2018-5 CEF Telecom calls Virtual Info Day Thursday, 17. May 2018- 10:00

Supported by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the call for proposals (CEF-TC-2018-2) provides grant funding of up to € 0.5 million to support the adoption of CEF eDelivery in your organisation. CEF funding covers up to 75% of the costs of implementation. The deadline for applications is 18 September 2018.

The secure transfer of data is a fundamental aspect of the digital economy. Any EU policy domain (justice, procurement, consumer protection, etc.) requires secure, reliable, cross-border and cross-sector exchange of documents and data (weather structured, non-structured and/or binary).

CEF eDelivery is a network of nodes for digital communications. CEF eDelivery 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.

In addition, CEF eDelivery is aligned with provisions set by eIDAS Regulation concerning Electronic Registered Delivery Services (ERDS). The eIDAS Regulation provides a predictable regulatory environment  to enable  secure  and  seamless  electronic  interactions  between  businesses, citizens  and  public  authorities  across  borders

Below you will find some key information needed to submit a grant proposal. However, you will need to read thoroughly the Call Text and supporting documentation, which outlines the objectives of the grant funding and how to apply, before submission. The Innovation & Networks Executive Agency (INEA) provides the call text and supporting information on grants. INEA is responsible for organising CEF calls for proposals.

To promote the uptake and speed up the use of the eDelivery technical specifications amongst both  public and  private entities established in the  EU and participating EEA countries, actions with the following objectives will be financed:

• Deploying access points and, possibly, operating those access points for one year;
• Deploying   Service   Metadata   Publishers   and,   possibly,   operating   those   Service Metadata Publishers for one year;
• Upgrading data exchange solutions (such as Commercial Off-the-Shelf -COTS, Open-Source  Software –OSS,  and  other)  to support,  and  duly  comply  with,  the  CEF eDelivery standards;

CEF grant funding also supports the integration of CEF eDelivery in a number of other Building Blocks and Digital Service Infrastructures (DSI). Consult the 2018 Work Programme for details.

Interested in applying? Be sure to check you fulfil the necessary submission criteria (as defined in the 2018 Work Programme and Article 9 of the CEF Regulation):

• The proposal must include the agreement of the concerned Member State(s);
• The  composition  of  the  proposing  consortium  complies  with  the  requirements  set  out  in the 2018 Work Programme and call text;
• The proposal is submitted by legal persons as referred to in section 4.3.1 of the 2018 Work Programme

The  proposals  will  be  evaluated  on  the  basis  of  three  criteria: ‘Relevance’, ‘Quality and efficiency of the implementation’ and ‘Impact’.

The timetable for this call for proposals is as follows:

Apply Now!

Still have questions?

• Register for the  2018-2 CEF Telecom calls Virtual Info Day;
• Send an email to INEA-CEF-TELECOMCALLS@ec.europa.eu;
• Browse INEA's Frequently Asked Questions;
• Follow INEA on Twitter @inea_eu or LinkedIn or visit the Build a Consortium LinkedIn group;