EU proposes cross-border electronic identification scheme

But national governments will be liable for faults

The European Commission has published a draft regulation governing electronic identification (e-ID) and trust services, with the aim of building a pan-European framework for digital signatures, and making it easier to verify identities online, across Europe.

In the process, the Commission hopes to make it easier for EU citizens of one country to interact with the public administrations of another.

Past attempts to harmonise electronic identities across Europe, most notably the 1999 Community Framework for Electronic Signatures Directive, have failed because of a lack of trust and the differing schemes operated across the EU.

"The aim is to enhance existing legislation and to expand it to cover the mutual recognition and acceptance at EU level of notified electronic identification schemes and other essential related electronic trust services," states the document.

The draft proposes mutual recognition of e-ID schemes by different EU countries, so that an e-ID of an individual from one country can be recognised and used to acquire access to public services in another.

"Citizens can rarely, if ever, use their e-ID to interact online with public administrations of other EU Member States," said the Commission. "This undermines our rights as Europeans, and causes inconvenience and extra costs associated with time delays and the hassle of maintaining multiple identity documents."

Data protection regimes already apply to national e-ID schemes, but the proposed directive will take this a step further by making member states assume liability for their own systems. That will give individuals and organisations the right to take legal action against governments in event of a problem with e-ID data or access to services.