1. When an electronic identification using an electronic identification means and authentication is required under national legislation or administrative practice to access a service provided by a public sector body online in one Member State, the electronic identification means issued in another Member State shall be recognised in the first Member State for the purposes of cross-border authentication for that service online, provided that the following conditions are met:

19. Recommends the introduction of uniform, pan-European common security standards for electronic identification and cross border e-verification services; welcomes the Commission’s proposal for a directive on e-identification and authentication, which will allow for interoperability of national e-identification schemes where these exist; calls, therefore, for registration and identification procedures to be streamlined and made more efficient, notably in order to ensure efficient identification mechanisms and to prevent multiple accounts per player and access by minors to online ...[+++] gambling websites; recommends the exchange of best practices between Member States on enforcement measures – such as on establishing white and black lists of illegal gambling websites, jointly defining secure and traceable payment solutions, and considering the feasibility of blocking financial transactions – in order to protect consumers against illegal operators;

19. Recommends the introduction of uniform, pan-European common security standards for electronic identification and cross border e-verification services; welcomes the Commission’s proposal for a directive on e-identification and authentication, which will allow for interoperability of national e-identification schemes where these exist; calls, therefore, for registration and identification procedures to be streamlined and made more efficient, notably in order to ensure efficient identification mechanisms and to prevent multiple accounts per player and access by minors to online ...[+++] gambling websites; recommends the exchange of best practices between Member States on enforcement measures – such as on establishing white and black lists of, and preventing access to, illegal gambling websites, jointly defining secure and traceable payment solutions, and considering the feasibility of blocking financial transactions – in order to protect consumers against illegal operators;

12. Stresses the importance of clear rules on consumer protection policies at European level; believes that further standardisation at European level is needed, in the form of a regulatory framework establishing security standards and transparency of costs for each form of electronic payment (also extending to non-banking service providers) and regulating all the actors involved in the provision of payment services as well as all intermediaries, including merchants (e.g. storage of credentials); believes that when defining standards it is necessary to take account of those systems which have brought about significant shifts towards safer payments (e.g. the CHIPPIN system for cards; two-factor authentication ...[+++] systems; e-signatures and online payments passing through e-payment services), of those systems which are more vulnerable to fraud (e.g. where consumers’ sensitive personal data are transmitted to third parties, as in online payments through overlay services, or the magnetic strip system for cards), and of innovations that could make the processes safer;

For example, steps could be taken to ensure that the proposed European Private Company can be set up using online applications and that proposals on the recognition of instruments such as those dealing with the legal protection of adults and other authentic acts are adapted for online use.

The purpose of online authentication systems is to allow users who have registered and provided some form of identification, often including an e-mail address, and verification, often a password, to navigate through participating sites without having to introduce a different password for each one.