PowerPointesitys

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The Porvoo Group
Tapio Aaltonen Director, CA-services, co- chair
Porvoo Group Population Register Centre Finland
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The Porvoo Group supports the deployment of
electronic identity in Europe

• The Porvoo Group is an international cooperative
  network
• As its name suggests, the Group was established
  in Porvoo, Finland, in the spring of 2002
• The eEurope 2002 programme -gt Smart Card Charter
  
• -gt Public Identity Project -gt the Porvoo Group

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• The Group consists of governmental
  representatives from European countries
• Representatives from the private sector and from
  the European Commission have also attended the
  seminars
• The number of participating member countries has
  steadily increased at present, about 30
  countries have representatives in the Group
• In the seminars the number of participants has
  been even as high as more than 100 persons

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Goals

• The primary goal is to promote a trans-national,
  interoperable electronic identity, based on PKI
  technology (Public Key Infrastructure) and
  electronic ID cards, in order to help ensure
  secure public and private sector e-transactions
  in Europe
• The Group also promotes the introduction of
  interoperable certificates and technical
  specifications, the mutual, cross-border
  acceptance of authentication mechanisms, as well
  as cross-border, on-line access to administrative
  services

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The Group meets twice a year

• Two-day seminars are held every 6 months
• In the seminars, there has always been a
  comprehensive presentation by the hosting country
  about the situation of the Information Society
  and the electronic identity in that hosting
  country
• In addition, the participating countries present
  their country updates
• The seminars have discussed Best practices,
  presented on-going PKI projects, followed the
  progress of standardisation and the preparation
  for the biometric passports, discussed various
  studies concerning the EU Directive governing
  electronic signatures, etc.

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The Group is pro-active

• The Group is a pro-active, European-level
  electronic identity interest group
• Widely recognised as a significant and relevant
  contributor to informed public dialogue in this
  area
• Amongst its other activities, the Group has
  issued or initiated the following
  recommendations
• 1) A letter of request sent to the European
  Commission in order to update the Driving License
  Directive to allow an electronic identity chip to
  be included on driving licenses

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2) Has started discussions concerning the legal
aspects of electronic identity and identification
and authentication functions -gt carried out a
study on the European Cross-Border Authentication
Legislative Environment and the need, if any, for
the EU to regulate the interoperable European
electronic identity -gt the study recommends
using the Directive governing electronic
signatures as a common legislative solution
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3) Has recognised the important developments
underway in the field Biometrics in Passports
and in the future also in ID cards -gt has
expressed its immediate need from the electronic
ID card perspective for an international standard
template for fingerprint minutiae -gt this
position has already been communicated to the
CEN/ISSS (European Committee for Standardization/
Information Society Standardization System)
Biometric Focus Group
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The permanent secretariat coordinates the function

• The three joint-chairpersons of the Porvoo Group
  are
• Mr. Tapio Aaltonen, the Director of Certificate
  Authority Services at the Finnish Population
  Register Centre
• Mr. Jan van Arkel, from the Netherlands, one of
  the Porvoo Group founders and the former eEurope
  Smart Card Charter chairman
• The Chairperson of the Organising Committee of
  the member country hosting the next Porvoo Group
  seminar

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About Porvoo 9 on 11 12 May, Ljubljana

• a very well organized seminar
• focus on How to achieve harmonisation between
  different eIDs?

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Additional information

• http//porvoo9.gov.si
• www.vaestorekisterikeskus.fi -gt Electronic
  Identity -gt Porvoo Group
• www.fineid.fi -gt Whats going around the world