Choice of eDelivery conformant solutions ever larger
The number of solutions joining the eDelivery AS4 and SMP conformance lists has been constantly growing in the recent years. For instance, in 2021 one solution has passed the Conformance Testing for the eDelivery AS4 profile and one has done so for the eDelivery SMP profile. In 2022, three solutions have joined the list of eDelivery AS4 conformant solutions, and two more were added to the list of eDelivery SMP conformant ones.
The eDelivery Building Block is keen to extend the list of conformant solutions to include more ‘eDelivery as a service’ entries in addition to ‘eDelivery as a product’ ones. This would help better meet the diverse needs of the users by offering them more versatile and tailored services. Additionally, a more significant presence of service providers would better cater for the SME market, for which software as a service is often a less costly and time-consuming approach compared to self-hosting.
The eDelivery AS4 profile is an open specification for the secure and payload-agnostic exchange of data using web services. It is based on ebMS 3.0 and AS4 standards of OASIS/ISO. In order to be recognized conformant, the Access Points are currently tested against the eDelivery AS4 - 1.15 specification, which was published in November 2020, replacing the previously used AS4 - 1.14 version. As of today, a total of 30 solutions have passed or are in the process of passing the conformance testing according to the eDelivery AS4 profile.
The eDelivery SMP profile is an open specification for publishing service metadata within a 4-corner network. It is based on the OASIS Service Metadata Publishing (SMP) Version 1.0 standard. The SMP is currently being tested against the eDelivery SMP - 1.10 specification, which was published in May 2018, replacing the obsolete e-SENS SMP - 1.9.0. A total of ten solutions have by now passed or are in the process of passing the conformance testing according to the eDelivery SMP profile.
The latest releases and the test reports of all listed solutions along with the vendors’ contact details can be found in the eDelivery Services webpage (check here for eDelivery AS4 conformant solutions and here for eDelivery SMP conformant ones). More details about the two eDelivery profiles are available in the corresponding pages of the European Commission’s DIGITAL website (eDelivery AS4 Profile and eDelivery SMP Profile).
For more information, please contact us via our portal or by e-mail: EC-EDELIVERY-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu.
The eDelivery Building Block | Conformance testing service
eDelivery is a building block that provides technical specifications and standards, installable software and ancillary services to allow projects to create a network of nodes for secure digital data exchange.
The eDelivery Conformance Testing service allows software vendors and service providers to verify that an implementation of the eDelivery Access Point and/or SMP specifications is conformant to the relevant eDelivery specifications.
New service provider for the eDelivery PKI
The eDelivery Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) service is currently being migrated from its incumbent certification authority to CommisSign-2, the certification authority of the European Commission.
As part of the migration, the PKI domain owners are requested to sign the updated General Terms and Conditions (GTC) document to ensure an uninterrupted provision of eDelivery PKI service to their users. The signature of the updated GTC document is a pre-condition for a domain to be able to request certificates from the new provider. Once the GTC document is signed for a certain PKI domain, the users will be asked to follow a new process to request and renew their digital certificates. Details about the forthcoming changes in the process are communicated to the domain owners alongside the GTC document.
All domains will have to migrate before the end of September 2022 and subsequently invite their users to request new CommisSign-2 certificates., no later than the end of January 2023. In early 2023, all still valid certificates issued by the previous certification authority will be revoked.
For more information regarding the eDelivery PKI service, please contact us via our portal or by e-mail: EC-EDELIVERY-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu.
The eDelivery Building Block | PKI service
eDelivery is a building block that provides technical specifications and standards, installable software and ancillary services to allow projects to create a network of nodes for secure digital data exchange.
The eDelivery PKI service enables issuance and management of the digital certificates used on the deployed eDelivery components, e.g., between eDelivery Access Points (AP) and Service Metadata Publishers (SMP), to ensure confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation of the data moving across systems.
In its capacity of Solution Provider of the eDelivery Building Block, the European Commission makes available a PKI service to organisations participating in eDelivery-based projects operated by the EU and EEA public administrations. Such public administrations first have to establish themselves as PKI domain owners in relationship to the service. The organisations who are authorised by the PKI domain owner to be part of their domain can then use the eDelivery PKI service to obtain digital certificates. The use of the eDelivery PKI is optional, policy domains may choose to use any other PKI service or mutual trust mechanism.
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