The STORK project, which is working on the interoperability of electronic identities (eIDs) across the European Union, has made public a number of technical documents including reports on process flows, the recently defined pilot-specific and eID common specifications, and planning documentation related to the forthcoming pilots.

STORK (Secure idenTity acrOss boRders linKed) is a three-year initiative aiming to enable businesses, citizens and government employees to use their national electronic identities (eID) in any country of the European Union. Such a system will simplify administrative formalities by providing secure online access to public services across EU borders. Five pilot projects to test the proposed eID framework, architecture and common specifications will begin in mid-2010 and will run for 12 months. The newly-released deliverables are available through the STORK website.

STORK Pilot Coordinator, Alberto Crespo, said “as a result of the newly-released technical documentation and once the on-going integration of the Pilots with the Common Interoperability Layer of STORK has been achieved, the main objective will be to conduct a phased-test of the pilot-specific implementations, including real end-users. This will allow the STORK member states to internally assess whether the STORK defined objectives are satisfied up to that point and take the final decision for the Pilots to enter into operation as planned. The STORK Pilots will represent an unprecedented milestone in the collaboration between EU member states in the field of eID interoperability by demonstrating in real life contexts the benefits of cross-border eGovernment services.”

The five pilot projects, involving different countries in each instance, are:

Cross-border Authentication Platform for Electronic Services, a demonstrator showing that cross-border electronic services can operate in a number of Member States; to be tested on the Belgium’s LIMOSA, German service-bw, Austrian help.gv portal, Portuguese Portal do Cidadão and Estonia’s integrated citizen portal.

Safer Chat, to promote safe use of the Internet by children and young people. The objective is to build a platform for a safer online environment where people can communicate on-line using their eIDs.

Student Mobility, to facilitate people who want to study in a different member state. It enables foreign students to get access to any online administrative service offered by a particular University using their national eID card of origin for identification purposes.

Electronic Delivery, to develop cross-border mechanisms for secure online delivery of documents based on the existing domestic infrastructure. The ability to conclude transactional processes electronically is an essential component of eGovernment, and also requested by the Service Directive.

Change of address, to assist EU citizens move and settle in other EU countries. It will not include only eID integration but will also allow the citizen to automatically send his new address details to the country in which he previously resided.

The project deliverables can be found on the STORK website in the STORK materials section, together with previously published deliverables.

STORK is 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).

For more information, visit the STORK website.