STORK completes pan-EU interoperability framework for electronic identity

The model was agreed over a 12-month period by the 14 Member States participating in STORK and was unveiled at the second Member States Reference Group meeting in Malmö City, Malmö.

Launched in 2008, STORK (Secure idenTity acrOss boRders linKed) is a three-year pan-EU initiative aiming to enable businesses, citizens and government employees to use their national electronic identities (eID) in any Member State. Such a system will simplify administrative formalities by providing secure online access to public services across EU borders.

One of the key steps towards achieving this goal is to approve the technologies, standards and specifications required to form a universal framework, which will be heavily tested by the Member States during the five major pilot projects next year. Crucial to the process of defining the common specifications within the framework was to be respectful of each Member State's organisations, legal and infrastructural limitations, as well as taking trust and scalability into account.

One of two leaders in STORK in charge of defining the Common Specifications, Miguel Alvarez Rodriguez comments, 'The main objective now is to test the model in real-time, with real people. Usability is critical to the success of the framework, so during the pilots we are expecting to refine and improve elements where necessary. Although it was a key factor in the conceptual design, scalability is also a challenge to be addressed in any future extensions of the project.'

The five pilot projects, which will run for a period of 12 months, are:

- A demonstrator showing that cross-border electronic services can operate in a number of Member States. The applications include national portals from Austria (help.gv.at); Estonia (eesti.ee); Germany (mein-service-BW); Portugal (portaldocidadao.pt) and the UK; one regional portal from Catalonia in Spain and one specific service for compliance activities for working in Belgium (limosa.be)
- Safer Chat, to promote safe use of the internet by children and young people
- Student Mobility, to help people who want to study in different Member States
- Electronic Delivery, to develop cross-border mechanisms for secure online delivery of documents
- Change of Address, to assist people moving across EU borders

The pilots will be run on a very flexible basis, with different Member States involved in each one. An overall evaluation work package will provide consistency for the assessment of pilot results.

STORK is currently supported by the European Commission (Competitiveness and Innovation Programme) and involves 14 EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the UK and Iceland (as an EEA member).