Aunque parece que el Foro FESA (Forum of European Supervisory Authorities for Electronic Signatures) está un poco inactivo últimamente, puede ser interesante rescatar alguno de los documentos que han publicado, orientados a resolver dudas sobre la aplicación de la Directiva 1999/93/CE.

FESA, the Forum of European Supervisory Authorities for Electronic Signatures, is a forum open to those bodies who are responsible for the operation of systems of supervision as they are defined in the European Signature Directive 1999/93/EC. The scope of FESA is to support cooperation among such bodies and to develop common points of view for the dialog with political or technical institutions.

FESA members meet regularly at least three times a year (not sure of this), exchange information and discuss matters of cooperation between supervisory authorities.

Statute

1. Scope

The scope of the Forum is to support cooperation among bodies responsible for the operation of systems of supervision as defined in Art. 3.3 of Directive 1999/93/EC*, harmonisation of such bodies’ activities, and to develop common points of view for the dialog with political or technical institutions, in particular the European Commission, the Electronic-Signature Committee referred to in Art. 9 of Directive 1999/93/EC, and standardisation institutions. It is not intended to duplicate the work of the Article 9 Committee.

The Forum is no legal entity. Performing their supervisory activities the members cannot be bound by decisions of the Forum.

2. Members

The following institutions are invited to become members of the Forum:

a) national bodies responsible for supervision according to Art. 3.3 of the Directive 1999/93/EC and/or for voluntary accreditation or approval schemes from all European Union and European Economic Area member states that have an interest in discussing the scope of the Forum (Art. 1),

b) comparable bodies from European Union candidate states, and

c) upon unanimous vote, comparable bodies from other countries that have transposed or intend to transpose the Directive 1999/93/EC.

Each member decides on its representatives in the Forum.

The Board keeps a directory of the members of the group. The simple majority of the members present at the assembly of the Forum decides in cases of doubt about membership.

3. Associate Members

National bodies responsible for supervision and/or voluntary accreditation or approval schemes with regard to products or services comparable to those within the scope of the Directive 1999/93/EC from countries that are not members of the EU or the EEA and are not EU-membership candidates, may apply for associate membership if they have an interest in discussing the matters within the scope of the Forum (Art. 1).

The applications may be granted by a unanimous vote of the members present at the assembly of the Forum.

The European Commission has the rights of an associate member.

Associate members may attend the assembly of the Forum and have similar rights to the members, except that they do not have the right to vote and can not be elected to the Board. Upon request of a member, the Board can decide that specific issues must be discussed only among members.

4. Guests

The Board can invite guests according to the agenda of a meeting.

5. Assembly of the Forum

The Forum meets regularly. The Board invites for the meeting of the assembly at least two times a year or if five members request it. Invitations must be sent at least one month in advance.

6. Decisions of the Forum

The Forum can decide using presence voting, if all members have been invited and the topics for decision have been included in the invitation. For decisions which require a unanimous vote, at least half of the members must be represented at the assembly. Only members that are represented at the assembly have the right to vote.

The Forum can also decide using the written voting procedure. The decision about the use of the written voting procedure is made by the Board and announced using electronic means. In this case, the proposal to be decided upon is distributed to the members by the Board along with the announcement. The Board also sets a deadline not shorter than 14 calendar days from the day of the announcement for voting. For decisions which require a unanimous vote, at least half of the members must cast their votes. Members may cast their votes using electronic means. Within five days after the deadline, the Board officially announces the result of the voting procedure and publishes the final text of the decision adopted, if any. During the deadline, any Forum member has the right to request the use of the presence voting procedure. In this case the written voting procedure is terminated without result and the issue is examined at the next meeting of the assembly.

Approval or modifications of this statute must be decided unanimously.

7. Board

The Board consists of a chairman and two secretaries. Each Board member must be a representative of a Forum member.

The Board is elected by the Forum. The three members of the Board are elected separately. The Forum decides whether the votes are given open or by ballot.

If a candidate does not get the simple majority of valid votes in the first vote, a second election decides among the two candidates with the most votes. If only one candidate is nominated, this candidate needs the simple majority of attending members.

The Board is elected for a period of two years beginning with the day of the election. Board members can resign at any time. A Board member loses its function, if it stops being a representative of a Forum member or if the Forum member leaves the Forum. When a Board member resigns or loses its function, a new Board member is elected for the rest of the period. At any time, the Forum can decide to elect a new Board (Art. 5).

In case it is not possible to elect a chairman until the end of a regular period, a temporary chairman for the period until the end of the next meeting may be elected by the Forum.

8. Duties of the Board

The Board shall

a) call the assembly of the Forum and prepare the meeting in cooperation with the hosting member,

b) decide on the agenda of these meetings and select persons for moderating the discussion,

c) invite guests to the meetings according to the agenda and the Forum’s statute,

d) take and distribute the minutes of the meetings.

The Board comes to its decisions unanimously and is represented by its Chairman.

Public documents

The following documents have been published by FESA:

• Important topics for the review of Directive 1999/93/EC from the supervisory autorities’ point of view, 2003-06-30
• Working paper about ‘to the public’ and closed systems, 2003-04-07
• Working paper about ‘established in its territory’, 2003-03-07
• Working paper about ‘verification of the identity’, 2004-02-03
• Working paper on qualified certificates for automatically signing systems’, 2004-10-12
• Working paper on ‘advanced electronic signatures’, 2004-10-12
• Working paper on changes regarding certification-service-providers, 2004-10-12
• Cross-border supervision of certification service providers, 2005-02-18
• Server based signature services, 2005-10-27