Legislation

The legal framework for trust services and electronic identification in the internal market of the European Union is currently enshrined inRegulation (EU) No 910/2014, on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market, which advocates a harmonised legal regime, directly applicable in allMember States.

That Regulation aims to ensure the trust, legal certainty and cross-border interoperability of electronic transactions, ensuring that electronic means of identification and trust services are recognised and accepted throughout the European Union.

In this context,the EIDAS Regulationestablishes, inter alia, the following fundamental legal principles and effects:

• direct and uniform application in all Member States of the European Union without any need for transposition;
• full legal recognition of electronic documents and cannot be refused solely because they are in digital format;
• Definition of a legal framework for qualified trust services, including qualified electronic signatures, qualified electronic seals, time stamps, qualified electronic signature validation service, qualified electronic signature preservation service, among others.
• recognition of the enhanced legal validity of qualified electronic signatures assimilated to handwritten signatures in applicable legal terms;
• Creation and maintenance of Trust Lists (Trusted Lists), with identification of qualified trusted service providers (QTSP), with constitutive legal effects;