The Smart Card industry is ready for e-ID

Brussels, 15th February 2006, EUROSMART, the Voice of the Smart Card industry, attended the High Level Seminar on eGovernment interoperability entitled “eGovernment for all Europeans” chaired by the Austrian presidency in Vienna on February 10th 2006.

EUROSMART reaffirmed its commitment to contribute to the definition of a Roadmap on eID, enabling the implementation of the Manchester Ministerial Declaration for effective eGovernment by 2010. The goal of this joint development of the European Commission, Member States and stakeholders such as industry associations, is to pave the way to an interoperable system that will offer European citizens a trusted, economic and ubiquitous access to eServices throughout Europe. Marc Géméto, convenor of the Market &Technology Working Group of Eurosmart said: “The meeting in Vienna was an important step towards the achievement of the roadmap. The action plan of the Commission due in April 2006 will confirm the legal framework for action”.

EUROSMART believes that smart card must play a major role in eID management. It is indeed the perfect tool that could meet the multiple objectives of facilitation in administration, convenience, respect of citizen privacy and strong authentication, as defined by the European Commission in November 2005 in the Signposts towards eGovernment by 2010, and reaffirmed by Mrs Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and media in her opening speech: “Electronic identification and authenticated electronic documents are the sine qua non for such meaningful, easy to use, and trustworthy online public services. Today’s incompatibility of public sector electronic identification and authentication systems is a barrier to using public services across borders”.

Smart Card offers proven security, mobility and privacy in all aspects of life. The technology already exists to make smart card a multi applications support for physical and virtual identification and to secure access to eServices (eHealth Card, eDriving licence, ePassport, ePayment, etc.).

Contact:
Florence Gras florence.gras@eurosmart.com
Coline Lavorel coline.lavorel@eurosmart.com

EUROSMART is an international association located in Brussels representing the Voice of the Smart Card industry for multi-sector applications. It gathers smart card, semiconductors, terminals, equipment and system integrators manufacturers, issuers and application developers in order to expand the world’s smart card market, to develop standards and to improve quality and security application.

EUROSMART gathers 35 members from 13 countries: ASK, Aspects Sofware, Atmel, Austria Card, Axalto, Bundesdruckerei, Datacard, Emosyn, FNMT, Fujitsu, Galitt Group, Gemplus, GIE Cartes Bancaires, Giesecke & Devrient, Infineon Technologies, Ingenico, Integri, MasterCard, Moneyline, NedCard, Oberthur Card Systems, ORGA, Philips, Renesas, Sagem, Samsung, Saqqarah International, Setec, Sharp, Spartamatrix, STMicroelectronics, Watchdata, Wave, XPonCard.

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