eSignature Overview
About eSignature
What is eSignature
Learn about eSignature, how does the European Commission support e-signature, who provides e-signatures in Europe, what are the benefits, what are the use cases.
Get Started
Learn how you can adopt electronic signatures and/or seals as a citizen, a business, a solution provider, a government (or a third party).
eSignature legislation
Learn about the eIDAS Regulation (EU) N°910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market.
Regulation (EU) N°910/2014Standards and specifications
Learn all the necessary standards to implement an eSignature compliant solution.
Grants
Learn about grants when implementing eSignature.
Services & Products
Service offering canvas
Find all eSignature services in a visual tool and request support through the eSignature service desk.
Digital Signature Service | DSS
Build your own solution in-house using our Digital Signature Services open-source library. Download the latest version for electronic signature creation and validation, find useful information, the DSS cookbook and past releases.
ETSI Signature Conformance Checker
A free online tool that performs numerous checks to verify the conformity of advanced electronic signatures against the ETSI standards.
eSignature List of Trusted Lists
Find the information notified by the Member States in an XML document that the European Commission makes available.
eSignature TLSO Community management
Visit the space to look for information and tools related to the management of the national Trusted Lists.
Pilot for the International Compatibility of Trust Services
This pilot aims to illustrate how the mutual recognition of the qualified trust service providers (QTSP) and the qualified trust services (QTSs) between the EU and a third country could be implemented in accordance with the eIDAS Regulation.
eSignature Trusted List Browser
Browse the information present in the Member States trusted lists (TLs) and in the European Commission list of trusted lists (LOTL).
Notification tool
Browse some of the eIDAS lists and send notifications to the European Commission for their publication.
eSignature validation tests
Test cases for eSignature solution implementers to test the "qualification" of electronic signatures and seals
eSignature FAQ
An electronic signature is a data in electronic form which is attached to or logically associated with other data in electronic form and which is used by the signatory to sign, where the signatory is a natural person.
Like its handwritten counterpart in the offline world, an electronic signature can be used, for instance, to electronically indicate that the signatory has written the document, agreed with the content of the document, or that the signatory was present as a witness.
In case you want to seal a document as a legal person (e.g. as a business or organisation), you might be instead interested in an electronic seal..
An electronic seal is data in electronic form, which is attached to or logically associated with other data in electronic form to ensure the latter’s origin and integrity, where the creator of a seal is a legal person (unlike the electronic signature that is issued by a natural person).
In this purpose, electronic seals might serve as evidence that an electronic document was issued by a legal person, ensuring certainty of the document’s origin and integrity. Nevertheless, across the European Union, when a transaction requires a qualified electronic seal from a legal person, a qualified electronic signature from the authorised representative of the legal person is equally acceptable.
An ‘electronic signature’ is a legal concept that is defined in eIDAS by the following:
“‘electronic signature’ means data in electronic form which is attached to or logically associated with other data in electronic form and which is used by the signatory to sign;” (eIDAS Article 3.10)
A digital signature, on the other hand, refers to a mathematical and cryptographic concept that is widely used to provide concrete and practical instances of electronic signature. The definition given by ETSI TR 119 100 is that of data appended to, or a cryptographic transformation of a data unit that allows a recipient of the data unit to prove the source and integrity of the data unit and protect against forgery e.g. by the recipient.
These two concepts should be distinguished, as all electronic signatures are not necessarily digital signatures.
The eIDAS Regulation defines three levels of electronic signature: 'simple' electronic signature, advanced electronic signature and qualified electronic signature. The requirements of each level are built on the requirements of the level below it, such that a qualified electronic signature meets the most requirements and a 'simple' electronic signature the least.