Europe-wide ID cards scheme in the spotlight

Stork will allow citizens to use their national ID cards across borders

Further details of a pan-European ID interoperability project known as Stork are set to be revealed at the Information Security Solutions Europe conference in Madrid next week.

Roger Dean, executive director at identity management and e-business association Eema, which is involved in the project, told vnunet.com that the security event will play host to a workshop on the Stork project.

The initiative aims to test technology which would allow citizens to use their national ID cards across borders, thus providing secure online access to public services all over Europe.

"Electronic identities do not yet do enough for mobile EU citizens," said Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, in a statement.

"By taking advantage of the development in national electronic ID systems, and promoting mutual recognition of electronic identities between member states, this project moves us a step closer to the seamless movement between EU countries that Europeans expect from a borderless single market."

The workshop on Stork will aim to thrash out more of the details about which technologies will be used in the project, and aims to form an industry working group, according to Dean.

"The theme of digital identity will run through the entire show in terms of fraud protection and prevention, and there will be stuff on biometrics too," he said.

"We will also have an international flavour with presentations on privacy and data protection, because the threat to people's data is increasingly global."