Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-25-Speech-1-053"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.19991025.4.1-053"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, although the Internet may have been seen until now as a source of information, it is now being used by the business world for buying and selling, and not just by businesses but by quite ordinary private individuals. Of course, this development within a rapidly expanding market with terrific growth rates ignores national borders and requires the provision of a Community framework. In recognition of this fact, the Commission has proposed a recommendation for a Directive on a Community framework for electronic signatures, in other words for signatures that are produced electronically rather than by hand. Parliament approved 32 amendments at the first reading in January 1999. The Council then presented its common position on 28 June 1999 having taken into consideration many of Parliament’s amendments. The Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market discussed the position and voted unanimously in favour of it, with 7 amendments, one of which we ought not to accept though.
Divergent national regulations should not be allowed to develop at all, or become established over and above the current scope. For this reason, I also think that it is important that this directive should come into force as quickly as possible and so I ask you to give it your approval.
I would like to discuss the following points. The directive is intended, first and foremost, for subscribers to open networks such as the Internet and does not affect the right to voluntary agreements in the context of closed systems. The Internet does not stop at European borders. For this reason, the directive aims to open up the market to third countries and provides for cross-border agreements.
Secondly, the future of electronic legal and business transactions essentially depends on whether we succeed in improving confidence in security, especially where the consumer is concerned, both in technical security as regards forgeries, for example, as well as in the legal validity of such processes. A crucial starting point for this is the electronic signature. By means of this kind of signature in electronic form, one can guarantee that the identity of the person who has made a declaration and signed it, the signatory in other words, can be immediately ascertained. In addition to this, the integrity of the data that have been supplied can also be ascertained.
As regards the technical standards which the directive deals with, it is attempting to ensure technological openness. We should be able to achieve higher standards of security through such advanced signatures and qualified certificates.
The directive guarantees that the appropriate cryptographic products will be available throughout the Community without this being made dependent on approval. It will permit voluntary accreditation systems though, in order to promote the level of quality standards. It is envisaged that there will be a minimum liability for certification-service providers. It will have to be possible to use pseudonyms and data protection will also be taken into account.
A crucial issue in subscribers’ confidence in the trustworthiness of legal transactions concluded electronically on the Internet is the legal validity of such actions. In future, advanced signatures will, as a matter of principle, be accorded the same status in the eyes of the law as hand-written signatures because they are particularly secure. However, the legal validity of ordinary signatures and their use as evidence ought not then to be denied as a matter of principle.
With this directive, which involves the first worldwide framework regulation of this kind, the European Union is making a first and crucial step towards both the regulation and the promotion of electronic commerce within the Community. This is designed to increase people’s confidence in the trustworthiness of open networks, in the services and products on offer and in the legal validity of business concluded on the Internet. It also makes a valuable contribution to the free trade in goods and services in the internal market, and indeed both for the consumer – if I may make a rather sensational comment: in terms of Internet shopping – and also for the suppliers of the necessary cryptographic services and products.
I would like to offer a word of thanks in particular to the Commission and to the Council for the extremely cooperative way in which they both worked together with Parliament. But my thanks also go to all my fellow Members of Parliament, from every group, not least those from the previous legislature period during which important preparatory work was done.
Our task consists mainly of painstakingly dismantling the divergent national regulations which have evolved, and of bringing them into line with one another. In this case, we are dealing with a newly developing technological and social reality, to which we can, from the outset, give legal form, through original European legislation, by means of which we will be able, at the same time, to prove our worth as a European Community of law in a particular way."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples