On 4 May 2020, the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) voted on a set of use cases to be implemented in EBSI v2. In the upcoming months, the EBSI team will work on the specifications and technical aspects of these new use cases. These projects aim to contribute to the EU's goal of digitalising European public administrations. They will further reinforce the goal to establish the digital single market by using methods that are univocally recognised in each Member State, while still ensuring the integrity and resilience of data infrastructure networks and communications. The three newly selected use cases are:

1. SME financing 

The main objective of the SME financing use case is to create an EU-wide platform for debt financing to open up new sources of (co)-finance political efforts in the area of sustainable economy, innovation and SMEs modernisation. The EBSI-powered public platform will offer services provided by a consortium of private and public entities. Its goal includes facilitating the flow of private financing from capital owners to SMEs or green projects.  

2. European Social Security Identification Number

The main objective of the European Social Security Identification Number (ESSIN) use case is to prevent frauds or errors by ensuring easier communication and data exchange between European countries and the EU Institutions. The ESSIN will be a process carried out by public authorities providing welfare services to securely analyse the data of EU citizens and guaranteeing a uniform level of service. In addition, it will secure rights portability for citizens between different Member States. It will further be a solution to fight frauds, errors, and duplication of identities.

3. Asylum process management 

The key objective of the asylum process management use case is to expand the scope of EBSI to a wide range of public sector processes. It will facilitate the management of cross-border and cross-authority processes in dealing with asylum applicants. This use case will use EBSI to securely propagate between the competent asylum authorities process updates and certain process data, and subsequently contribute to the digitalisation of cross-organisational processes. 

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Update on the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum (EUBOF)

On 6 May 2020, the EUBOF concluded its first mandate with an online workshop. During its first two years, with the support of DG CONNECT and the European Parliament, EUBOF has gathered and analysed trends on the development and deployment of blockchain technologies, issued expert recommendations to address challenges, and explored blockchain’s socio-economic potentials. You can listen to a recording of the closing workshop and download the expert reports issued by EUBOF to date.

On 14 May 2020, DG CNECT announced the selected consortium members to continue the work of EUBOF for the next 2 years. Join the EUBOF Twitter community and follow their activities.

CEF Telecom call deadline extended to 25 June 2020

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the deadline of the 2020-1 CEF Telecom call for all Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs) has been extended to 25 June 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 that was 20 May. This new deadline will provide potential applicants with more time to look for partners, prepare high quality proposals and obtaining the necessary support/endorsement by their Member State.

Apply here!