The EU4Digital Facility has kicked off its extended eSignature pilot activities, testing the technical interoperability of cross-border eSignature between Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine and EU member state Estonia, and looking to expand testing with further countries.
The pilot implementation will be based on the Technical memorandum, which describes the technical aspects of eSignature pilot activities, the options of interoperability levels and the common eSignature format. Alongside the Technical memorandum, the participating countries have provided short profilers on pilot eSignature service provision. By defining and maintaining the Technical memorandum, the EU4Digital Facility aims to empower the Eastern partner region to achieve cross-border mutual recognition of trust services.
The eSignature pilot implementation includes testing of eSignature creation, timestamping, validation and certificate status verification components deployed to enable the interoperability of electronic signatures across borders. The pilot extension follows the successful conclusion of the eSignature pilot between Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, and Estonia, carried out in 2020-2021.
The EU4Digital eSignature pilot activities will allow countries to test the early proof of concepts, and thus to increase the readiness for mutual recognition of digital trust services. The cross-border eSignature is one of the key enablers to extend the Digital Single Market to the Eastern Neighborhood, and throughout the process EU4Digital experts will support countries to eliminate the barriers for interoperability of eSignature across the borders. The current eSignature pilot activities are to include technical implementation and testing phases, which will take place until the end of February 2022.
