Patrick Van Eecke

The European draft directive on a common framework for electronic signatures

Abstract On 16 June 1998, the European Commission officially submitted a proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive on a common framework for electronic signatures (COM (1998) 297 final).2 After elaboration of the text by the Working Group on Telecommunications of the Council and the Committee of Permanent Representatives a final proposal was submitted to the Council of Ministers for political agreement during its meeting held in Brussels on 27 November 1998.3 A political agreement could, however, not be reached on the directive and the Permanent Committee was instructed to further discuss the file. The most important reason for not agreeing on the proposal was the lack of consensus between the Member States on the need for requirements regarding the quality of the products used to create an electronic signature with full legal effect. It is the opinion of the authors of this article that the dispute between the Member States is due mainly to confusion on three levels.