Commission calls for harmony on electronic signatures

The Directive is required to be in force in all member states by 19th July this year (although in the UK it has already been implemented in part by the Electronic Communications Act). The Directive aims to harmonise legal recognition of electronic signatures in the EU so that they can be used efficiently in cross border transactions. This, it is hoped, will further facilitate the development of e-business in Europe.

Mr Liikanen, when addressing the European Electronic Signatures Standardisation Initiative (EESSI) in Brussels on Tuesday, called for practical business solutions to be developed by the private sector (in co-operation with public authorities) that are compliant with the Directive. He added, “this requires the promotion of standards and best practices, as well as further interoperability tests and common criteria for the certification and testing of security enhancing software.”

The Electronic Communications Act differs from the Directive. The Directive defines the requirements for electronic signature certificates and certification services so as to ensure minimum levels of security and allow their free movement throughout the Internal Market. Among its main elements, it provides that an electronic signature cannot be legally discriminated against on the sole ground that it is electronic. If a certificate and the service provider as well as the signature product used meet a set of specific requirements, any resulting electronic signature will be as legally valid as a hand-written one.

However, under the UK Act, Ministers are only given the power to make delegated legislation to remove any restrictions in other legislation which prevent use of electronic communications in place of paper. This is not the same as removing all restrictions on the form of signatures. Accordingly, relaxation of the rules on signatures is being done in a piecemeal fashion.