CEF Building Blocks at ENISA Trust Services Forum 2019
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On 25 September 2019, the European Commission presented an update of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Building Blocks at Trust Services Forum in Berlin, Germany.
This forum, organised by the European Union Agency for Network and Information Systems (ENISA), focused on the major issues related to Trust Services across Europe, including:
- Sharing good practices and experience on the implementation of trust services;
- Discussing the latest developments on the framework surrounding trust service providers including standards, implementing acts and technical guidelines;
- Exchanging views on identified implementation and operational issues of qualified trust services;
- Discussing strategies to promote the adoption of qualified trust services.
The continued shift from paper-based to digital services presents new challenges to public and private sector organisations, with 'trust' a key consideration.
The eIDAS Regulation ((EU) N°910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market) tackles the issue of trust when accessing services across borders. eIDAS ensures that people and businesses can use their own national electronic identification schemes (eIDs) to access public services in other EU counties. It also creates a European internal market for electronic trust services – namely electronic signatures (as well as electronic seals, time stamp, electronic delivery service and website authentication).
During the Trust Services Forum 2019, the European Commission presented how three CEF Building Blocks directly support public and private sector organisations benefit from the provisions of the eIDAS Regulation, keeping public services in Europe secure and connected:
- eID: which ensures that people and businesses can use their national eID schemes to access public services in other EU countries and provides and ensures legal validity of transactions across borders and same legal status as traditional paper based processes;
- eSignature: which helps public administrations, businesses and citizens sign electronically through the DSS open-source library and a number of practical supporting services;
- eDelivery: which proposes the use of the highly secure AS4 messaging protocol to create a secure channel for the transmission of documents and data by electronic means, over the internet or via a private network.
Apostolos Apladas, DIGIT –European Commission, presents the eSignature Building Block
The Commission highlighted the formation of a workgroup for the federation of electronic signatures among European Institutions and the roll-out of EU Sign, a DSS (eSignature)-based application, as the solution for eSignatures within the European Commission.
For CEF eSignature, the Commission informed participants about a new service desk, new notification tool and TLSO webinars and trainings. CEF eSignature also continuously develops the TL-Browser and TL-Manager. CEF eSignature receives on average 500 DSS downloads per day.
You can see the full CEF slid-deck here.
ENISA has published all presentations from the Trust Services Forum (and CA-Day) on the event page.
To build a Digital Single Market, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme funds key digital infrastructure, 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 eight building blocks: Big Data Test Infrastructure, Context Broker, Archiving, eDelivery, eID, eInvoicing, eSignature and eTranslation. Blockchain and the Once Only Principle are on their way to becoming operational Building Blocks in the near future.