Earlier this year, the parties behind the electronic access services (eTD) system, achieved the integration of cross-border login with national authentication means (eIDAS) into the eTD system. Government service providers can now, by connecting to an eTD broker, meet the requirements of the eIDAS regulation. Now that the Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO), on behalf of the Netherlands, has put the structural connection to the German authentication system into production, we can rightfully say: the Netherlands (started by RVO and CJIB) is the first European member state to comply with the eIDAS Regulation.
Background
For several years, the Netherlands has been involved in designing and developing the European digital infrastructure to enable individuals to log in to government websites in other member states using their own national authentication means. These activities take place in light of the EU eIDAS regulation. eIDAS stands for Electronic Identification and Trust Services. This means that digital borders within the EU are eliminated, allowing you as a resident to do business with foreign governments with your own ID.
RVO has been carrying out projects in this framework since 2011: pilots, co-design and development of the European infrastructure and construction and operation of the Dutch eIDAS linkage point. These linkage points enable access to the digital services of all European member states.
Cooperation with Germany
Cross-border authentication can be implemented technically in different ways. Germany uses a working method that is technically different from most other member states. Since this has its origins in the operation of the German national authentication system, this working method must be integrated with the broader European implementation. For the connoisseur: eIDAS Middleware versus eIDAS Proxy.
Cooperation first took place in the European project e-SENS (Electronic Simple European Networked Services) in which it was demonstrated that via the pilot infrastructure (STORK) exchange of authentication messages was possible.
German login tool 'Neuer Personalaussweis'
Following the successful notification of the German eID system, der Neue Personalausweis, to the European Commission, a new situation arose: all European member states must support login via the German eID system by September 29, 2018. Not through a pilot infrastructure, but now with the structural eIDAS solution. With this solution, residents of EU countries should be able to purchase government services abroad more easily.
The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) requested support for linking the German and European eIDAS solutions. To this end, RVO continued to seek collaboration with the software company Governikus, contractor of the German federal government for the development of the German eIDAS solution.
After an intensive collaboration of more than 6 months, the structural, integrated German / European eIDAS software has been successfully put into production: Germans can from now on log in with their Personalausweis at more and more Dutch government service providers.
What does this mean in concrete terms?
German entrepreneurs (e.g. Grensboeren) can log in to myRVO.nl using their own means of identification. In this way, RVO is already complying with the eIDAS regulation that will take effect later in the year.
At CJIB, German citizens who have committed a traffic violation in the Netherlands will now be able to log in with their German ID and settle the fine online.
