19 October 2022

The PEC is preparing to expand its validity in Europe

A specific regulation was already issued in 2014 whose purpose was to provide a European regulatory basis for so-called "trust services" and for electronic identification means.

This regulation, known as the eIDAS Regulation (electronic IDentification Authentication and Signature), contains precisely the conditions for guaranteeing secure electronic interactions between citizens, businesses and public administrations at the European level, increasing the security and effectiveness of electronic services and e-transactions. e-commerce.

Soon Certified Electronic Mail will also be able to meet the criteria of the eIDAS Regulation.

Compliance with this regulation will become, in the future, a necessary requirement to continue to send certified messages, which must have an extendable value throughout Europe.

The PEC, born and raised in Italy, is thus preparing to become a community communication tool, with legal value recognized in all European states.

 

What will change?

The standard PEC service guarantees the content and sending of a message but, unless it is combined with a qualified electronic signature service, it does not guarantee the identity of the author of a particular message.

The new European PEC, on the other hand, will adopt measures to guarantee the identity of the person using it.

These measures will essentially be:

  • sure identification of the person who owns a mailbox (via SPID, digital signature or other means)
  • increased level of security in accessing the service, which must necessarily take place via 2FA (two-factor authentication)

 

When will the PEC service become European PEC?

The conversion of the current PEC services into European PEC has already started in September. Over the next few months, all PEC boxes will be progressively enabled for the European PEC, and each individual holder will be able to proceed with the operations necessary to qualify their service (i.e., enable the 2FA protocol and proceed with personal identification).

Users will have the full 2023 available to qualify their service, and the conversion is expected to be completed by March 2024.

 

How much will the European PEC cost?

The cost of the European PEC service will be the same as the normal PEC service.

No substantial cost increases are expected, except for the standard, lower profile mailboxes, due to the higher operating costs of the service.

 

New features for your PEC mailboxes

Once the identity is confirmed and the 2-step verification has been activated, the PEC box will have some additional technical characteristics, provided for by the European standards for qualified certified delivery services:

 

  • data that legally certify that messages comply with European standards;

  • additional headers in all mail messages;

  • extension of the validity of messages to 30 years
    (The law provides for a qualified electronic time stamp of at least 20 years).

Consequently, your mailbox, while remaining fully compliant with the technical rules of the PEC, will also contain all the elements required by the standards of qualified certified delivery services defined by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute), the European body that deals with established technical standards in the telecommunications sector.

To make them recognizable, messages sent from a box compliant with European legislation will be marked with a blue check.





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