The UK is to spearhead a £14m pilot project covering 13
European countries to test the interoperability of several
electronic identity systems. This may eventually give citizens and
businesses access to e-government services across the EU if
governments can agree to accept one another's vetting
processes.
"It is about the eventual pan-European recognition of electronic
IDs," a spokesman for the
Identity and
Passport Service (IPS) told Computer Weekly.
The Stork project, which is now at the proposal stage, is
expected to run for three years. It is part of the programme of
work the EU ministers agreed in Lisbon recently. The consortium is
likely to include Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany,
Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain,
Sweden and the UK.
"It is still in early stages and is very much exploratory work,"
the spokesman said. "The UK Government Gateway has huge experience
and expertise to bring to this work and is working closely with the
IPS who lead on ID policy,"
Researchers will explore existing operational electronic
gateways and try to overcome technical and business process issues
to provide e-government services cross-border, he said. "It is not
about a change in services or entitlements it is only looking at
existing programmes to examine what would be needed to establish
secure systems for mutual recognition of national electronic
identities."
Roger Dean, executive director of
EEMA, the European e-identity
and security association, is responsible for publicising the
initiative. He said the European Commission believes Europe will be
more competitive and efficient if citizens are freer to travel,
find work, access health services, buy property, and register for
schools. He also said it would make it easier for small and medium
enterprises to set up and do business in any member state.
Dean said some nations already used national identity cards as
passports. "However, Stork is not intended to replace passports in
the short term," he said.
The scheme will also test third-party "identity providers".
These are trusted non-government agents that would do all or some
of the initial registration, supply the credential (such as an
electronic ID card), and authenticate identities on request, Dean
said. Such an entity could be a bank or credit reference
agency.
Dean said the scheme is presently "only 50% funded" national
governments and industry are expected to chip in the rest.
Discussions so far with government system developers showed they
were all focused on solving perceived national problems than in
authenticating citizens of other countries, he said.
Dean added that EU-wide rules on privacy and data protection
were central to Stork. But he acknowledged that data sharing
agreements such as the Prum Treaty, which allows European police
forces to share data, including DNA profiles, on criminal suspects,
or the US-EU deal on supplying passenger name records of travellers
to the US, may abrogate many existing safeguards.
Another key issue will be the extent to which each government
will accept the others' registration and authentication processes.
The present minimum standard requires a face to face meeting
between the authenticator and the subject.
Dean said some large Dutch companies were already accepting
Belgian ID cards as proof of employees' identity. This was because
they trusted the process for issuing the cards.