Finland and Estonia Start Harmonizing Digital Signature and Document Practices

10.07.2003

Finnish Väestörekisterikeskus (Population Register Centre, PRC) and Estonian Sertifitseerimiskeskus (Certificate Centre, SK) have signed an agreement to harmonize the concepts and practices between the two countries regarding digital signature and document format and exchange.

According to the agreement, the two countries will share information and experiences concerning the concepts and technologies for digital signature and document management, following European and national legislation requirements and international standards.

"The goal of this agreement is to make legally binding digital documents a reality within and between Finland and Estonia," said Ritva Viljanen, Director General of PRC. "The ID card projects of both countries have progressed very quickly over the last few years. As one of the primary functions of the e-ID card is to give digital signatures, it is natural that the signatures given using the cards and documents made using those signatures should be recognized not only within one country, but also between countries."

"I am really glad to sign this agreement on behalf of the Estonian ID card project," commented Ain Järv, CEO of SK. "Our card project is largely based on the valuable experience gained in Finland, and harmonizing digital document concept is a natural continuation of the two projects. Technology and concept sharing and reuse enables different projects to become more cost-effective and instead of creating solutions from zero, components that have been found to be working in one community can be used in others."

The signature project, codenamed OpenXAdES, remains an open initiative and PRC and SK invite all interested parties to take a look at the project materials available at www.openxades.org.


AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus (SK) was founded in 2001 by Hansapank, Eesti Ühispank, Eesti Telefon and EMT. The company's mission is to create and develop infrastructure that facilitates secure and reliable electronic business, record management and communications in Estonia. To fulfill its mission, SK offers reliable certification and time-stamping services and develops and distributes technology and information necessary for using ID cards. For more information, please visit www.sk.ee.

The Finnish Population Register Centre (PRC) is responsible for developing and maintaining the population information system in Finland. It is also the leading certification authority and supplies the certificates which are used on the Finnish electronic identification (e-ID) card. The e-ID card is a secure network key for on-line services that require reliable identification of a person, e.g., most government as well as many private sector services on the Internet. For more information, please visit www.fineid.fi/en,
www.vaestorekisterikeskus.fi/en, www.electronic-identity.org.

Additional information:

Ulla Westermarck
Population Register Centre, Project Manager
Tel. +358 9 2291 6509, +358 50 364 9747,
E-mail ulla.westermarck@vrk.intermin.fi

Jaanus Kase
AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus, Communications Manager
Tel. +372 610 1880, +372 50 79 276


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