Filenews 2 April 2021 - by Vasos Vassiliou
Despite the fears expressed before the House Committee on the Interior that citizens' personal data could be found 'in the air' and end up with unauthorised persons, with all that this entails, the relevant bill concerning the issue of 'electronic identity' is being forwarded to plenary.
Reservations were expressed before the Commission during a debate on the relevant bill and calls for the adoption of insurance procedures 'to avoid possible abuse in the implementation of the proposed arrangements and the leakage or misuse of citizens' personal data, which will be processed by providers of electronic identity services'.
The purpose of the bill is to establish a legislative framework for regulating the issue of electronic identity cards in the Republic on the basis of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market'.
The Deputy Minister for Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, Kyriakos Kokkinos, told the Commission that the preparation and implementation of the National Electronic Identity Plan, which includes the basic principles governing the issuance of electronic identity in the Republic, is particularly beneficial for the state, the economy and society. In particular, as he said, the project under reference is a milestone in the implementation of eGovernment and is expected to bring about savings, simplification of procedures, increased efficiency and productivity in the public and private sectors, as well as an improvement in the quality of service for citizens and businesses.
With electronic identity it is considered that, among other things, the "paper" will be reduced and prospectively the staff of various services since many of the transactions will be done electronically.
The provisions of the bill include the following:
-The provision of electronic identity services by authorised providers (individuals) of those services and the right of citizens to access such services through electronic identification.
-The responsibilities and obligations of the competent authority, i.e. the Department of Electronic Communications of the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy.
-Notification by the competent authority to the European Commission of the electronic identification systems in place.
-The criminal liability of legal persons and their officials for the commission of the offences set out in the basic legislation under amendment to this bill.
-The obligation for the competent authority to disclose any administrative fine or other administrative penalty imposed on its website.
In addition, a second bill amends the Population Archive Act in order to introduce arrangements for the issue, renewal, suspension and revocation of electronic identities in the Republic.
