Between which countries did EU4Digital pilot eSignatures? What is the outcome of the pilots?

EU4Digital deployed technically operational cross-border eSignature pilots between Ukraine, Moldova and Estonia. To achieve this, the countries participating in the pilot first had to agree on common principles and formats, including timestamping, validation mechanisms and the certificate status checking components. At a first glance, the common principles may seem straightforward, but from a practical point of view, the technical implementation required complex coordinated actions in a multi-stakeholder environment to enable a technically operational and interoperable eSignature solution across countries.

The eSignature pilot also helped to identify existing gaps and obstacles from the regulatory and technical perspectives, allowing us to develop practical recommendations to piloting countries. In this perspective, the eSignature pilots have provided a foundation for countries to further harmonise electronic identification and trust services environments across EaP and EU countries. Moreover, the common practices and recommendations have become available for sharing and adoption to all Eastern partner countries.