Project Stork

The Stork project is expected to help bridge the gap between the different eID systems currently in use, leading to a de facto standard for interoperability in eIDs. The deadline for this is 2010, when the EU’s European eID Management Framework comes into force.

The UK’s Identity and Passport Service (IPS) is leading the pilot project in close cooperation with the Government Gateway, the UK’s centralised registration service. “It is about the eventual pan-European recognition of electronic IDs,” said an IPS spokesperson. “Neither services nor entitlements will change, rather, the project is currently about looking at methods that already exist and figuring out how to make them recognise each other.”

The trial is expected to last three years. Researchers will look closely at how systems across Europe can be unified to enable citizens to travel more freely and gain access to public services. In the short term, it is not intended to replace the existing passport regime.

Roger Dean, executive director of EEMA, the European e-identity and security association that is spearheading the initiative, said that at this stage the scheme is focusing on how governments can identify their citizens when they are in other EU member states.