EU trust services legislation
The Electronic Signatures Directive 1999/93/EC, passed in 1999, established the first legislation governing the use of electronic signatures in electronic contracts within the EU. The eIDAS Regulation, which came into effect in 2016, was developed to address the shortcomings of the 1999 directive and expand its scope in a number of important ways.
The goal of eIDAS has been to support the development of a Digital Single Market (DSM) for EU Member States, which was among the European Commission’s 10 priorities for the period 2015-2019. eIDAS, therefore, is designed to facilitate the smooth flow of commerce in the EU through transparency, security, technical neutrality, cooperation and interoperability.
In 2024, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union approved the European Digital Identity Regulation. Regulation (EU) 2024/1183, also known as eIDAS 2, was driven by the recognition that the initial eIDAS legislation of 2016 had fallen short of achieving its goals. As its name suggests, strengthening and expanding the use of digital identities is a major aim of the new regulation. In 2026, when the regulation is fully implemented, each member state will be required to make a European Digital Identity Wallet (EDIW) available to its citizens and accept wallets from other member states.