The EU regulation eIDAS: The Impuls to Unify the Electronic Signature and the Electronic Identification in the EU

Keywords: eIDAS, electronic signature, electronic identification, european law

Abstract: The paper shortly introduces the recently published Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (abbreviated "eIDAS"). Several areas of the the electronic signature adjustment are considered questionable. The Regulation does not include the principle WIPIWIS (What Is Presented Is What Is Signed) as well as it does not determine suitable duties for the signatory and/or relying party. The lack of such provisions may cause the easy repudiation of the signature by the alleged signatory. While the Regulation boldly states the equivalance of the qualified electronic signature to the handwritten signature the analysis discovers that the legal evidence effect may hardly be considered the same. The Regulation also looses some conditions likely in order to allow the usage of the cloud saved private key. Such technique may improve the deployment of the electronic signature technology essentially but lower its security too. It is considered unfortunate that the Regulation abandoned the possibility to limit the use of the qualified certificate by the signatory because it would allow him to control its risks and expenditures. The paper summarizes the impact of eIDAS to the Czech legal system and the necessary related updates of the Czech law. The paper also describes some activities of the European Commission during the pending period of the preparation of the implementing acts.