On 21 June, the German parliament (Bundestag) accepted the government’s eIDAS implementation act, confirming the enforcement of rules on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market. Specifically, the act clarifies the responsibilities of the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
The Bundesnetzagentur is the root certification authority under the Electronic Signatures Act and the BSI is involved in the technical development and implementation process of the eIDAS regulation.
In its proposal, the government argues that the act will not increase costs for citizens, companies or public sector organisations. On the contrary, eIDAS should result in savings, because of increased efficiency and improved document workflow.
At the Bundesnetzagentur and BSI, these savings offset the costs of hiring few extra staff. For companies, costs to adopt technology are compensated by a high potential for workflow rationalisation and the elimination of physical documents (paperless office), and reducing costs for printing and postage, the government writes, referring to a 2016 whitepaper.
The 2014 eIDAs regulation aims to make it possible for citizens and businesses in the EU to use their national eID solutions to access eGovernment service in other EU Member States.