the Commission has drawn up this working document in which it analyzes the status of the twelve key action proposals to stimulate growth, employment and confidence in the single market set out in the Act. This document contains a section on "Making the cross-border use of electronic identification, authentication and signature easier."
The European Commission plans to present its legislative proposal for a European Framework for electronic identification, authentication and signature in the second quarter of 2012. The aim of this proposal is to create an appropriate legal framework to ensure
that identification, authentication, electronic signature and other auxiliary trusted services can be used through fronteres, in order to promote the functioning of the internal market, and more generally, to boost the trust and ease of use surrounding them. The proposal is based on the establishment of mutual recognition and acceptance of official digital identities (eIDs) between Member States, to alleviate cross-border interoperability problems with legal regimes for electronic signatures (which have resulted in low uptake), and to establish a regulatory framework for the so-called “ancillary services” (such as time stamping). These services have not been regulated at EU level so far, except in emerging national legislations that show the need for common legislation to avoid potential obstacles to
internal market.
On the other hand, highlight point 2.12: “Making public procurement more efficient, flexible and easy to use” in which it refers to the proposal for the revision of the Public Procurement Directives presented by the Commission on 20 December 2011, which aims to modernize and simplify European legislation on public procurement, in particular by introducing flexibility in procedures, reducing the administrative burden on business and developing and strengthening the electronic procedure.
