Signature Validation Service

EU Legislation

Introduction: EU Legislation

In the European Union the following legislation have had a considerable impact on the topic of electronic and digital signatures:

  • the Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 on a Community framework for electronic signatures (cf. [R07]);

  • Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (cf. [R12]).

The eIDAS Regulation repealed Directive 1999 and became official on July 1, 2016. A Regulation is a law that applies across all EU Member States (MS). eIDAS aims for interoperability between the EU MS, among others in the field of the electronic signature, by building compatible trust service frameworks.

One of the main aspects of the eIDAS Regulation, is that where the Directive mainly covered Certificate Service Providers, the eIDAS Regulation expands on that concept and introduces the new concepts of trust services and trust service providers which is detailed in the next subsection.

Resources

Certain resources have been developed to improve the adoption of the eIDAS Regulation as well as improve information sharing about the eIDAS Regulation and related concepts.

The EU Trust Services Dashboard (EU TSD) is such a resource. It "proposes a centralized platform that enables interested parties and Digital Single Market players to easily and transparently access information and tools related to the trust services chapter of eIDAS".

It contains among others a Trusted List Browser to browse through the trusted lists of the different EU Member States.

eIDAS implementing acts have been issued and adopted by the Commission:

  • Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2015/296: procedural arrangements for cooperation between Member States on electronic identification.

  • Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2015/1501: on the interoperability framework.

  • Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2015/1502: on setting out minimum technical specifications and procedures for assurance levels for electronic identification means.

  • Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2015/1984: circumstances, formats and procedures of notification.

  • Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/806: specifications relating to the form of the EU trust mark for qualified trust services.

  • Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2015/1505: technical specifications and formats relating to trusted lists.

  • Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2015/1506: specifications relating to formats of advanced electronic signatures and advanced seals to be recognised by public sector bodies.

  • Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2016/650: standards for the security assessment of qualified signature and seal creation devices.

ETSI has developed standards that can be followed to be compliant with the eIDAS Regulation.

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