Six months after Computer Weekly
broke the news, the European Commission has unveiled a
pilot project to ensure cross-border recognition of national
electronic identity (eID) systems and give all EU citizens easy
access to public services in 13 member states.
European countries have issued some 30 million national eID
cards that allow citizens to access a variety of public services.
These include claiming social security and unemployment benefits,
filing tax returns, and substituting for passports.
The Stork project, which is led by the UK's Identity &
Passport Service together with the Government Gateway, will enable
EU citizens to prove their identity and use national electronic
identity systems (passwords, ID cards, Pin codes and others)
throughout the EU, not just in their home country. The plan is to
align and link these systems without replacing existing ones.
The project will run for three years and receive £15.4m in
matched funding from the European Commission and 29
participants.