CEF eArchiving: "The digital preservation service process", recording & slides published

On 21 May 2020, the European Commission organised a live Webinar, followed by an interactive Q&A session, to introduce the digital preservation service process. 

In the fourth of the CEF eArchiving Building Block’s training webinars, Katja Suomilammi introduced the digital preservation service process in the National Archives of Finland (NAF). The webinar explored the service element of digital preservation focusing on the dynamics and communication between Repository Owners and Operations Managers

Participants had an opportunity to:

• gain insight into how eArchiving is influencing the idea of service process
• explore the lessons learned from cooperation between Repository Owners and Operations Managers.
• discuss experiences with Repository Owners and Operations Managers
• find colleagues who are in similar roles

The CEF eArchiving Building Block provides specifications, reference software, training and service desk support for digital archiving, including digital preservation. In order to help users benefit from the features of the Building Block, CEF is running a series of training Webinars that will cover its core functionality and other relevant CEF eArchiving content. 

See recording

Upcoming webinars

This webinar looking at ESSArch was one in a in a series of webinars looking at the CEF eArchiving Building Block. You can already view the recording of our preservation of digital geospatial records webinar.

Below is the tentative calendar for the next instalments:

About the CEF building blocks

The CEF Building Blocks provide basic services which can be reused to enable more complex digital public services offered to citizens, businesses and public administration. They provide reusable tools and services helping to underpin the Digital Single Market, that aims to remove digital barriers.

The CEF Digital Portal is the home of the CEF building blocks (Big Data Test Infrastructure, Blockchain, Context Broker, eArchiving, eID, eDelivery, eInvoicing, eSignature, eTranslation and Once Only Principle). It is the one-stop-shop for information about the building blocks.

Europe's Digital Innovation Challenge discussed on Breaking Banks Europe

On 27 May 2020, Joao Rodrigues Frade (Head of Sector, Building Blocks, European Commission) and Kelly Liljemo (Policy Officer, Stakeholder Management, European Commission) spoke to the Breaking Banks Europe podcast. They discussed the Digital Innovation Challenge and how reusable, standards-based solutions - like the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Building Blocks - make that happen.

Listen now to this Breaking Banks Europe’ interview:

• Spotify
• Apple
• Google

Find out more via Europe's Digital Innovation Challenge.

Check the challenge

Cartagena is on track to meet Europe 20-20-20 targets with CEF Context Broker

©Adobe Stock by alexanderkonsta

Citizen well-being through sustainable development

Cartagena is a coastal city located in the south-east of Spain with more than 250,000 inhabitants and a big industrial park in the vicinity of its port. Lately, citizen well-being has been challenged by high levels of particulate matter and pollutant gases, as well as climate change-induced extreme weather conditions. These conditions, such as high temperatures, reduced rainfall and even droughts, have led to increased water consumption, which in this region now stands at 17 litres higher per citizen than the national monthly average. To curb excessive water usage, the city raised the price of water, but this greatly increased expenses for households and local farmers, many of whom had to downsize their fields. 

The situation has left the government of Cartagena to seek more creative ways to curb water usage while meeting its goals in sustainable development and citizen well-being. Turning to technology, Cartagena found Context Broker – a Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Building Block – that gathers data in real-time from smart applications and sensors to one smart platform. This solution allows the city's decision makers to be aware of conditions in real-time, hence making it possible to react and adjust plans faster and more dynamically. The resulting air pollution mitigation strategies and reduced water consumption have also contributed to the city in meeting its ambitious goals towards the European union's '20-20-20’ climate and energy targets.

Monitoring water, air and weather

Cartagena’s solution relies on a vast amount of data to enable the real-time monitoring of water consumption, air quality and weather conditions. CEF Context Broker is key in consolidating the data coming from multiple sources and contextualising data for meaningful analyses, such as real-time conditions and past trends. The solution was designed and deployed by HOP Ubiquitous, a local SME specialised in providing sustainable cities with data-driven environmental services. Context Broker was used to consolidate data from the following two main solution areas:

• Smart water management system for parks and gardens, consisting of:
  • Sensors: for real-time monitoring of soil moisture and weather parameters
  • Actuators: water meters, electro valves and flow meters
  • A remote management tool: for irrigation programmes (manual, scheduled and smart), creation of watering restrictions, management of user profiles, identification of system components, leak detection, alerts and notifications etc.

• Air quality and weather monitoring network for real-time monitoring of environmental parameters and air pollution from industry that may endanger urban liveability and sustainability:
  • Pollutant gases: CO, O3, NO2, SO2
  • Particulate matter: PM1, PM2.5 and PM10
  • Weather parameters: monitored by weather stations

The data gathered and managed by Context Broker is visualised in a variety of different dashboards for the benefit of the city’s decision makers.

Benefits of the solution

“The smart irrigation and air quality monitoring solutions built with CEF Context Broker and the FIWARE ecosystem allow our city managers both to create efficient air pollution mitigation strategies, thanks to an early detection of harmful air pollutants from traffic and industry, and to carry out an efficient management of urban irrigation water. Consequently, we are approaching the expected targets in air pollution and water usage for 2020” - Vicente Pardo, Chief of Programs & Studies, Infrastructures City Council Department, Cartagena.

All in all, Cartagena has seen a 40% reduction in water consumption and a decrease of 25% in the use of irrigation water, while the city’s green areas have flourished. These results are helping Cartagena meet its sustainability goals in water consumption and air pollution related to the European Union’s ‘20-20-20’ climate and energy targets: 20% reduction in energy consumption, 20% increase in the use of renewable energies and 20% reduction in CO2 emissions.

How has the city achieved this? Context Broker makes the underlying data collected from various sources available and easily accessible for holistic analyses that search and combine data from different domains, IoT devices and time spans. This allows Cartagena’s city authorities to make fact-based decisions and plan new sustainable development strategies for increased quality of life and preservation of natural resources. The city can easily adjust irrigation depending on real-time soil moisture, reduce vehicle speed limits in metropolitan areas, strategically plan new green zones, or plant autochthonous trees to reduce the CO2.

How Context Broker is being used

CEF Context Broker is at the heart of the smart city platform. As the Context Broker comes with a standardised open API (NGSIv2 REST API) developed by FIWARE, it was quick and easy to integrate it with FIWARE-ready IoT devices using FIWARE’s complementary data models. This makes it effortless to build scalable and standards-compliant vertical smart services that use real-time and time-series data to meet the needs of smart cities.

Illustration courtesy of Cartagena

After heterogeneous data sources are integrated in the single platform, Context Broker contextualises data based on user needs. This means organising data in a way that produces meaningful information:

• advanced queries, such as filtering data based on time, attribute or geolocation; and
• combining data across domains, such as air pollutants or weather events with soil moisture, or real-time data with historical data.

Context Broker’s wide range of functionalities, such as updates, queries, registrations, subscriptions and notifications, help users retrieve, discover and access information as needed. One of the main features of Context Broker is the publish and subscribe system. The system allows context producers (entities managing IoT devices) to publish data by invoking update operations, while subscribing sends out notifications when any of the monitored conditions change.

From Context Broker, queried data is exported to Grafana, an open source tool, for data visualisation and analysis by city authorities. Data is exported through Cygnus (also a part of CEF Context Broker) and QuantumLeap. These tools provide connectors to a wide range of databases and ensure data’s availability for creating different data-driven smart services.

Images of hardware equipment and selected dashboards powered by Context Broker

CEF eSignature: Trusted List Conformance Boosting Campaign for TLSOs, June 2020!

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In the beginning of June 2020 the CEF eSignature Team will start the TL Conformance Boosting Campaign.

This campaign aims at reducing the number of non-conformances present in the Trusted Lists. The focus will be on the resolution of one targeted error across all Trusted Lists. Interested Trusted List Scheme Operators (TLSOs) can contact us and express their wish to participate. 

• Register now.
• Find out more on the TLSO Community website.
• Contact the TLSO Service Desk for further questions.

CEF eSignature

Qualified trust services provided in Europe (e.g. issuance of qualified certificates for electronic signatures or seals, qualified timestamping services) are listed in national Trusted lists in all EU and European Economic Area Member States.

The trusted lists can include both qualified trust services and non-qualified trust services. Qualified trust services must be included on a national trusted list to be qualified, while it is up to each Member State whether – and which – non-qualified trust services to include in their trusted list.

The Member States' TLSOs can create and edit a trusted list in a standard, machine-readable format using the Trusted List Manager, a service of 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 across borders. It provides the DSS open-source library for the construction of signing solutions; the Trusted List Browser, helping you find a Trust Service Provider; e-signature validation tests and a dedicated service desk (including a support desk for the closed community of national TLSOs).

Use CEF eSignature

CEF eInvoicing: EAS Code List Update, May 2020

©Adobe Stock

The European Commission has released an update to the Electronic Address Scheme (EAS) code lists managed under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).

The CEF eInvoicing Building Block serves as the managing authority for the Electronic Address Scheme (EAS) code list in the European standard on eInvoicing (EN 169 31). CEF has published an interim release of the EAS code list following a request from BOSA in Belgium for an interim release that adds code 0208 to the EAS codelist. This is to support the initiation of its Hermes project. This release takes place after consultation with stakeholders represented in the CEF Advisory Group, 

To maintain consistency and full support to the ICD code list, this release includes adding codes 0205 to 0208 to the list of ICD codes to be supported in implementations of EN 16931. The EN 16931 validation artefacts that are maintained by CEF, on request of CEN/TC434, have been updated to support this new code list version. The effective date for this release is 30 June 2020, by which all implementations of EN 16931 shall have been updated to support this release of the validation artefacts and code lists.

The next regular release of the EAS code list, as well as the VATEX code list will be as scheduled on 4 September 2020 following a deadline of Request for Changes on 21 August 2020. An update to the EN 16931 validation artefacts will follow on 2 October 2020.

CEF Digital provides a Registry of supporting technical resources (validation artefacts, code lists, etc.) to implement the European standard on eInvoicing. You can receive email notifications for each update to the items included in the registry (such as these code lists) directly on the dedicated page in the CEF eInvoicing User Community (simply follow the instructions at the bottom of the page).

CEF eInvoicing

The European Commission supports public administrations comply with Directive 2014/55/EU on electronic invoicing in public procurement with the CEF eInvoicing Building Block.

The Directive mandated the creation of a European standard on eInvoicing. The European standard makes it possible for sellers to send invoices to many customers by using a single eInvoicing format. This means they do not have to adjust their sending and/or receiving to connect with individual trading parties.

CEF eInvoicing makes the following services available:

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

European Commission customs & taxation department chooses eDelivery for its ICS2 system

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The European Commission is pleased to announce that the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) has decided to use the AS4 message exchange protocol in their Import Control System (ICS2). AS4 is the core standard promoted through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eDelivery Building Block. 

The EU customs pre-arrival security and safety programme, underpinned by a large-scale information system - ICS2, is one of the main contributors towards establishing an integrated EU approach to reinforce customs risk management under the common risk management framework (CRMF): Customs Security – ICS2.

ICS2 will use eDelivery in its Shared Trader Interface (ICS2 STI), a shared, harmonised interface that will provide economic operators that bring the goods into the European Union a single instance of a harmonised trader interface with the customs authorities.

By connecting to an AS4 Access Point, any economic operator with a role in the commercial supply chain can easily submit electronic entry summary declarations to a Member State customs authority through the Shared Trader Interface, taking into account international standards and avoiding the unnecessary cost of point-to-point interaction for businesses and customs authorities. The secure eDelivery channel between the economic operator’s Access Point and the STI’s Access Point prevents data loss, damage and unauthorised alterations and provides evidence that information has been sent and received.

The ICS2 STI system is expected to generate over 1.5 billion exchanges per year and will be extensively used by economic operators bringing goods to the EU.

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is connecting digital services all over Europe, nurturing a trans-European digital ecosystem. CEF does this through digital Building Blocks, providing public administrations and businesses with common standards and technical support to develop compliant digital services that operate across borders and sectors. 

DG TAXUD chose to use eDelivery because it is a standards-based, well-established message exchange protocol, but also for its security, reliability and scalability. To date, more than 35 countries have deployed almost 600 eDelivery Access Points. ICS2 STI and systems like it can, through eDelivery, accommodate vast numbers of economic operators in a market-friendly and future-proof way.

Visit CEF Digital to see how AS4 could help your organisation.

CEF TELECOM GRANT BENEFICIARY

Croatia modernises, simplifies and opens access to public services with CEF eID

©Adobe Stock by Natali_mis

Accessing land records, applying for a construction permit and buying a vignette for a boat – these are just some of the Croatian digital public services that have become available to other EU and EEA citizens. An important enabler was the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eID Building Block, which provides and manages tools, support services and procedures for implementing an EU-wide, standards-based solution for cross-border electronic identification. Thanks to CEF eID, other Europeans can now use their own national eID schemes and means to securely and conveniently carry out online transactions in Croatia, bringing Europe one step closer to the Digital Single Market.

Access for all

The Croatian e-Citizens system for digital public services was established in 2014 and today, it also offers e-services across borders to EU and EEA citizens. Croatia started on its journey to open up access to digital public services for other citizens shortly before the eIDAS Regulation came into force in July 2016. As a result, the e-Citizens system was extended in the spirit of the regulation, which aims to remove obstacles to the cross-border use of electronic identification between Member States, especially for ​​accessing public services.

Therefore, during 2016 and 2017, the Ministry of Public Administration, with support from the Financial Agency, conducted a project called Ensuring Access to Croatian Public e-Services within the e-Citizens Platform for EU and EEA Citizens. The objective of the project was to give Europeans access to Croatian e-Citizens services using their national credentials or means of electronic identification issued by other Member States.

The project enabled cross-border authentication, established the Central Government Platform (europe.gov.hr with e-Citizens), and enabled the use of the first 10 public e-services for EU and EEA citizens. It was followed by a second project called the Electronic Public Identification Croatia (ePIC), which further extended the range of e-services available to other Europeans. With 834,740 unique users to date, the CEF eID Building Block contributed to the success of e-Citizens with a package of standards, specifications and software that now digitally connects Croatia to the rest of Europe. CEF eID also provided Croatia with support services and funding.

Joining the European network

Through this project, the e-Croatia Directorate (within the Ministry of Public Administration) successfully implemented the Croatian eIDAS-Node using the software provided by the CEF eID Building Block. The eIDAS software is a sample implementation of the eID eIDAS Profile, and it is offered free of charge to all Member States. The eIDAS-Node was implemented in the government’s existing National Identification and Authentication System (NIAS), thus connecting the national e-Citizens system to the European eIDAS network – the technical infrastructure which connects national eID schemes. The project lasted for a year from 15 June 2016 to 14 June 2017, and included several workshops organised by the CEF support team to help Croatian public authorities.

The next step was to notify other EU Member States of the Croatian eID scheme, which makes use of the NIAS and the Croatian personal identity card. Notifications allow other Member States to become aware of each other’s eID schemes for their mutual recognition. 

How CEF eID helped

• Helped ensure compliance with the eIDAS Regulation and relevant standards
• Provided a readily available technical solution in a sample software
• Training and workshops
• Funding for implementing the eIDAS-Node and for connecting services to it
• Enabled identification of EU and EEA citizens

How can CEF help you?

Our website CEF Digital provides more information on eID and the accompanying technical documentation and support services that are available to all. We would be happy to help you get started, visit us at the links below to learn more about eID, how you can apply for EU funding for a project of your own, and check out our list of other Croatian CEF grant beneficiaries.

CEF eID

How to apply for CEF funding

Croatian CEF grant beneficiaries

10 candidates shortlisted for the next stage of the Digital Innovation Challenge

The European Commission has published the ten shortlisted candidates for the next stage of the Digital Innovation Challenge for Europe's startups and SMEs.

The Digital Innovation Challenge received a high number of innovative applications from SMEs and startups trying to find cutting-edge ways to push the economy and society forward. After an eligibility and evaluation screening of the applications, we are glad to announce the ten shortlisted candidates:

• OpenContent;
• Business Reporting Advisory Group;
• Clever Books;
• Compellio;
• Crowdpolicy;
• Bit4id;
• Latitudo 40;
• T Mining;
• OrangeBooks;
• Parity Platform

The Challenge invited SMEs and startups across Europe to propose innovative services and solutions based on the European Commission’s open and reusable solutions, including the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Building Blocks. The journey will continue for these ten shortlisted candidates in a co-creation bootcamp, where they will pitch their ideas and work with coaches to refine their solutions. Lastly, the top three finalists will be invited to receive their prize at the award ceremony.

See the Challenge

European Commission Big Data tool helps European Blood Alliance investigate COVID-19 convalescent plasma therapy

©Adobe Stock

As every country enters the race to find a cure to COVID-19, recent findings suggest that antibodies in the blood of recovered patients could be used for convalescent plasma therapy in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

The European Blood Alliance (EBA) is working together with the European Commission (DG SANTE, DG CNECT and DG DIGIT) to create and manage an EU-wide, open-access platform gathering data on COVID-19 convalescent plasma therapy. This project aims to support research on this promising treatment for COVID-19 patients by consolidating EU evidence and providing actionable, data-driven insights into the therapy's safety and effectiveness. 

How the Big Data Test Infrastructure helps

The European Commission interconnects Europe's national digital landscapes through digital infrastructure - known as Building Blocks.

The Big Data Test Infrastructure (BDTI) Building Block helps public administrations and projects led by the public sector improve the citizen experience, increase government efficiency and boost business through big data.

BDTI, funded by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), provides the EBA and DG SANTE with a ready-to-use, virtual environment capable of gathering and analysing data from various blood establishments, hospitals, clinical trials and wider monitored use of the therapy. This will include data on convalescent plasma donors, the plasma collection process, plasma components such as antibodies and outcomes for patients following transfusions. 

By identiying and analysing information relevant to the processes of plasma donation and transfusions from the vast amout of data provided by hospitals and blood services taking part, this project will help develop effective, safe and data-driven approaches to convalescent plasma therapy. An open-access database will support researchers' data analysis as they work towards developing this new treatment and a better understanding of COVID-19, and could save many lives in the future. 

Building Blocks against COVID-19

BDTI is supporting hospitals and municipalities in fighting COVID-19, with already a number of pilot requests received on this topic.

CEF eArchiving: Webinar Introduction to ESSArch, slides and Q&A published

On 26 March, the European Commission organised a live Webinar, followed by an interactive Q&A session, provided information on ESSArch - an open source-based solution for long-term preservation of digital information.

In the second of the CEF eArchiving Building Block’s training webinars, Andreas Segerberg and Björn Skog introduced ESSArch, an open source archival solution compliant to the OAIS ISO-standard and a part of the Sample Software Portfolio in the Building Block.

ESSArch consists of software components that provide functionality for Pre-Ingest, Ingest, Preservation, Access, Data Management, Administration and Archival Management. ESSArch has been developed together with the National Archives of Sweden and Norway. Every software component of ESSArch can be used individually and also be easily integrated together to provide overall functionality for producers, archivists and consumers.

The CEF eArchiving Building Block provides specifications, reference software, training and service desk support for digital archiving, including digital preservation. In order to help users benefit from the features of the Building Block, CEF is running a series of training Webinars that will cover its core functionality and other relevant CEF eArchiving content. 

See recording

Upcoming webinars

This webinar looking at ESSArch was one in a in a series of webinars looking at the CEF eArchiving Building Block. You can already view the recording of our preservation of digital geospatial records webinar.

Below is the tentative calendar for the next instalments:

About the CEF building blocks

The CEF Building Blocks provide basic services which can be reused to enable more complex digital public services offered to citizens, businesses and public administration. They provide reusable tools and services helping to underpin the Digital Single Market, that aims to remove digital barriers.

The CEF Digital Portal is the home of the CEF building blocks (Big Data Test Infrastructure, Blockchain, Context Broker, eArchiving, eID, eDelivery, eInvoicing, eSignature, eTranslation and Once Only Principle). It is the one-stop-shop for information about the building blocks.

Europe Day 2020 - #StrongerTogether

 © Council of Europe & Luís Vieira

Europe Day 2020 comes at a time when our economy and our society face the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

During these times of crisis, countries, regions and cities across the European Union are stretching out a helping hand to fellow EU citizens and assistance is being given to those most in need: donations of protective equipment such as masks, medical teams, cross-border treatments of ill patients and bringing stranded EU citizens home. This is European solidarity at its best.

Upon request, the European Commission coordinates assistance to respond to the coronavirus, such as to coordinate the delivery of personal protective material, repatriation flights from outside Europe, and co-finances the delivery of assistance and the transport of medical teams from one country to another.

With its Emergency Response Coordination Centre, the Commission stands ready 24/7 to assist all countries, in Europe and beyond, who ask for specific support.

As Member State governments and the Commission discuss the respective continuation and easing of extraordinary measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, it necessary to consider our vision for Europe after the current measures are eased.

A digital Europe is part this vision. Now is the time embrace the role of digitalisation in transforming our society for the better and building a green economy.

Pan-European digital infrastructure has helped authorities mitigate the effects of the pandemic and harness the value of data as a strategic assert, such as how CEF Context Broker helps turn data into action plans to fight COVID-19 in Italy or CEF Big Data Test Infrastructure allowing the use of scientific clinical evidence against COVID-19 in Valencia.

Beyond the pandemic, Europe is leading the global struggle against climate change. Here too, the use of the CEF Building Blocks means better, faster and more innovative digitalisation, saving our environment, from automated eInvoicing in Finland to less pollution in Barcelona.

We are #ConnectingEurope so that we are #StrongerTogether.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, a cornerstone of the values and purpose of the European Union.

One of the key messages of the Declaration is that "Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity".

To show your solidarity with Europe, the Commission has created the Stronger Together sticker which you can update on your profile picture on Facebook, use on Instagram, alongside the hashtag #EuropeDay.

#UnitedAgainstCoronavirus

Deadline for submissions to current CEF grant funding call extended to 25 June 2020

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the deadline to apply for grant funding from the 2020-1 CEF Telecom call for eDelivery (€0.9 million), eID & eSignature (€3 million), eTranslation (€4 million) and the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (€3 million) has been extended to 25 June 2020 to give more time for applicants to prepare their proposals.

The original deadline was 12 May for all DSIs, except for the eID & eSignature call, which was 20 May.

This deadline extension will give potential applicants more time to look for partners, prepare high quality proposals and obtain the necessary support and endorsement from their Member State.

Find out more on the INEA website.

Embracing mobile identity for eGovernment

©Adobe Stock

Mobile access to online government services is a key trend, as public administrations attempt to improve the accessibility of their online services and provide a better user experience for their citizens. Governments face pressure to match their private sector counterparts, who are now commonly tailoring their commercial online services, from banking to retail, for the mobile experience. Mobile eID, enabling users to authenticate their identity using their smartphones, will be a crucial component of these efforts.

This paper "Embracing mobile identity for eGovernment" provides an overview of approaches to enable mobile eID, and the key trends seen in countries across the EU. It outlines the main technical options as well as providing recommendations to EU administrations on how to improve the mobile experience of cross-border authentication.

Read full report

Technologies for mobile identification

One of the central technologies to enable mobile eID for smartcard based programmes is Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. When integrated in a smartcard, NFC technology allows access to the  information stored on the card through a contactless connection. It is the same technology that enables consumers to pay for purchases with a tap of their bankcard. With the recent opening up by Apple of the NFC interface on its phones (already available on Android phones), governments can draw on this technology to enable citizens to access eGovernment functions from their mobile device.

A remaining barrier is that only 9 out of 18 Member States with eID cards have this NFC technology integrated within them. This situation may change as governments update their cards to integrate this technology, especially given the new EU legislation on strengthening the security of identity cards (Regulation (EU) 2019/1157), which requires that certain information on the card be made available contactless.

In the meantime, other technological options for enabling mobile identification are:

• Bluetooth-enabled card readers - Enabling users to use a card reader as they normally would, which is connected via bluetooth to their smartphone. The disadvantage of this solution is that users must carry the card reader with them.
• Sim card solutions - The electronic certificates required for identification can be stored on the SIM card used for a mobile phone.
• Secure elements / secure enclaves - Secure environments embedded in the mobile devices - allowing the electronic certificate to be securely saved on the device itself - and freeing users from reliance on any single mobile provider.
• Server signing - Key pairs and associated certificates are stored in a hardware security module (HSM) of a trusted service provider.
• Software tokens - Encrypted key and certificates are stored on the operating system of the mobile device.

Mobile identity as dynamic identity

A final interesting opportunity presented by the growing use of smartphones is that they could allow for the combination of biometric and behavioural identifiers and the development of a conception of mobile digital identity as ‘dynamic identity’. Under this concept, the user would be subject to continuous authentication as they used the phone. By default they would be logged in, and only logged out if the biometric and  behavioural indicators revealed that there was a risk of the user not being the actual identity owner. Although offering considerable potential benefits, it is not clear whether the technology is yet ready to fully implement this concept.

Recommendations for mobile cross-border authentication

Aside from the technological options, the report provides a series of recommendations for EU national governments and administrations on how they can ensure a positive experience for users trying to authenticate their identity on a mobile device to access a cross-border services.

In the end, the recommendations are:

• To ensure that service providers maintain websites that are responsive for mobile devices - providing an efficient and readable display;
• To encourage service providers to develop mobile applications - allowing access to their services;
• To develop a mobile-friendly country selector for eIDAS - i.e. the interface by which users select the eID means they wish to use;
• To ensure that the eIDAS nodes’ interfaces are mobile friendly;
• To test the overall mobile journey - in order to identify any pain points.

Embracing mobile identity

Following these recommendations, and implementing one of the technological options for mobile eID described above, can help governments provide the level of service users have grown accustomed to from private sector mobile applications. The report provides further details on each, and can be a valuable resource for those governments committed to developing mobile eID and providing a user friendly mobile experience for citizens accessing their services.

Visit CEF eID now