Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-25-Speech-1-063"
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"en.19991025.4.1-063"2
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"Mr President, I too would first like to warmly thank my colleague, Mr Kurt Lechner, for his excellent report which I can also fully endorse in terms of its content. With the Directive on a Community framework for electronic signatures, the European Union is taking an important step towards breaking down the barriers to electronic commerce. Until now, the legal position of electronic signatures has been unclear, and it has been particularly open to question whether electronic statements with a digital signature can be accepted as evidence in legal proceedings. These problems will now diminish since, according to the directive, in future, legally binding declarations may also be submitted electronically, thereby facilitating electronic commerce.
The directive is the first step on the way to achieving a comprehensive legal framework for electronic commerce. Amongst other things, it points the way for the Directive relating to electronic business transactions, for the Directive relating to distance selling and in part for the Directive relating to copyright which will both soon be dealt with at second reading in the European Parliament. My colleague, Mr Wuermeling, has already quite rightly clarified the fact that the directive leaves it to the Member States to determine when an electronic declaration of intent which is signed with a digital signature should be taken to be equal to a signed statement or to a statement for which the law stipulates, for example, that a hand-written signature is necessary.
I particularly welcome the fact that the directive exempts national contract law, in particular provisions on the drawing up and fulfilment of contracts, from its scope, and concentrates on essential matters. I have two more very brief observations on the directive. Firstly, it is extremely important that a Europe-wide system for electronic signatures is established, one which will be open to global developments and ready to integrate them. Here, too, it is incumbent on the Commission to take up contact with third countries and international organisations in order to find appropriate solutions. It will be of particular interest to observe in this context which recommendations the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the OECD and the WTO are developing in this area.
It must be our aim to ensure that electronic signatures are recognised across borders, in other words, to establish an internationally compatible framework. Secondly, I would like to stress, and with this I shall also conclude my speech, how important and urgent it is for there at last to be regulations governing market access for the certification service providers, for internal market principles to be applied and for there to be liability regulations. It is high time that through the adoption of uniform provisions, both for certification services providers and for consumers, consistency of law is achieved, so that – as is the case when credit cards are used – they will then know exactly to what extent there is a risk of them being threatened with liability."@en1
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