(1)

Member States need to put in place the necessary technical means allowing them to process electronically signed documents that are required when using an online service offered by, or on behalf of, a public sector body.

(2)

Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 obliges Member States requiring an advanced electronic signature or seal for the use of an online service offered by, or on behalf of, a public sector body, to recognise advanced electronic signatures and seals, advanced electronic signatures and seals based on a qualified certificate and qualified electronic signatures and seals in specific formats, or alternative formats validated pursuant to specific reference methods.

(3)

To define the specific formats and reference methods, existing practices, standards and Union legal acts should be taken into account.

(4)

Commission Implementing Decision 2014/148/EU (2) has defined a number of the most common advanced electronic signature formats to be supported technically by the Member States, where advanced electronic signatures are required for an online administrative procedure. Establishing the reference formats aims at facilitating the cross-border validation of electronic signatures and at improving the cross-border interoperability of electronic procedures.

(5)

The standards listed in the Annex to this Decision are the existing standards for formats of advanced electronic signatures. Due to the ongoing revision by the standardisation bodies of the long term archival forms of the referenced formats, standards detailing long-term archiving are excluded from the scope of this Decision. When the new version of the referenced standards is available, references to the standards and the clauses on long term archiving will be revised.

(6)

Advanced electronic signatures and advanced electronic seals are similar from the technical point of view. Therefore, the standards for formats of advanced electronic signatures should apply mutatis mutandis to formats for advanced electronic seals.

(7)

Where other electronic signature or seal formats than those commonly technically supported are used to sign or seal, validation means that allow the electronic signatures or seals to be verified across borders should be provided. In order to allow the receiving Member States to be able to rely on those validation tools of another Member State, it is necessary to provide easily accessible information on those validation tools by including the information in the electronic documents, in the electronic signatures or in the electronic document containers.

(8)

Where electronic signature or seal validation possibilities suitable for automated processing are available in a Member State's public services, such validation possibilities should be made available and provided to the receiving Member State. Nonetheless, this Decision should not impede the application of Articles 27(1) and (2) and 37(1) and (2) of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 when the automated processing of validation possibilities for alternative methods is not possible.

(9)

In order to provide for comparable requirements for validation and to increase trust in the validation possibilities provided by Member States for other electronic signature or seal formats than those commonly supported, the requirements set out in this Decision for the validation tools, draw from the requirements for the validation of qualified electronic signatures and seals referred to in Articles 32 and 40 of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014.

(10)

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee established by Article 48 of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014,