The eIDAS (electronic IDentification Authentication and Signature) Regulation - Regulation EU No. 910/2014 on digital identity - aims at providing a basic legislation at the EU level for trust services and electronic identification of member states.
The eIDAS regulation aims at providing a common normative basis for secure electronic interactions between citizens, businesses and public administrations and at increasing the security and effectiveness of electronic services and e-business and e-commerce transactions in the European Union.
Compared to electronic identification systems, the regulation envisages that each Member State can notify the electronic identification systems provided to citizens and companies for the purpose of mutual recognition.The eIDAS regulation was issued on 23 July 2014 and is fully effective from 1 July 2016.
It is worth stressing the full interoperability at the EU level of specific types of electronic signatures and time validation systems, such as digital signature and time stamp. The formats of qualified electronic signatures are defined in the Implementing decision (EU) 2015/1506 of the Commission of 8 September 2015, which envisages also the PDF format.
To verify the validity of qualified electronic signatures based on certificates issued by all parties authorised in Europe, the European Commission has made available an open source application that AgID makes available for online use.