EIDAS

eIDAS (electronic IDentification, Authentication and trust Services) is an EU regulation on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the European Single Market. It was established in EU Regulation 910/2014 of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and repeals 1999/93/EC from 13 December 1999.
It entered into force on 17 September 2014 and applies from 1 July 2016 except for certain articles, which are listed in its Article 52. All organizations delivering public digital services in an EU member state must recognize electronic identification from all EU member states from September 29, 2018.
Description.
eIDAS oversees electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the European Union's internal market. It regulates electronic signatures, electronic transactions, involved bodies, and their embedding processes to provide a safe way for users to conduct business online like electronic funds transfer or transactions with public services. Both the signatory and the recipient can have more convenience and security. Instead of relying on traditional methods, such as mail or facsimile, or appearing in person to submit paper-based documents, they may now perform transactions across borders, like "1-Click" technology.
eIDAS has created standards for which electronic signatures, qualified digital certificates, electronic seals, timestamps, and other proof for authentication mechanisms enable electronic transactions, with the same legal standing as transactions that are performed on paper.
The regulation came into effect in July 2015, as a means to facilitate secure and seamless electronic transactions within the European Union. Member states are required to recognise electronic signatures that meet the standards of eIDAS.
Vision.
eIDAS is a result of the European Commission's focus on Europe's Digital Agenda. With the Commission's oversight, eIDAS was implemented to spur digital growth within the EU.
The intent of eIDAS is to drive innovation. By adhering to the guidelines set for technology under eIDAS, organisations are pushed towards using higher levels of information security and innovation. Additionally, eIDAS focuses on the following:
Regulated aspects in electronic transactions.
The Regulation provides the regulatory environment for the following important aspects related to electronic transactions:
Evolution and legal implications.
The eIDAS Regulation evolved from Directive 1999/93/EC, which set a goal that EU member states were expected to achieve in regards to electronic signing. Smaller European countries were one of the first to start adopting digital signatures and identification, for example the first Estonian digital signature was given in 2002 and the first Latvian digital signature was given in 2006. Their experience has been used to develop a now EU-wide regulation, that became binding as law throughout the EU since the first of July, 2016. The directive made EU member states responsible for creating laws that would allow them to meet the goal of creating an electronic signing system within the EU. The directive also allowed each member state to interpret the law and impose restrictions, thus preventing real interoperability, and leading toward a fragmented scenario. In contrast with this directive, eIDAS ensures mutual recognition of the eID for authentication among member states, thus achieving the goal of the Digital Single Market. 
eIDAS provides a tiered approach of legal value. It requires for no electronic signature to be denied legal effect or admissibility in court solely because it is not an advanced or qualified electronic signature. Qualified electronic signatures must be given the same legal effect as handwritten signatures.
For electronic seals (legal entities' version of signatures), probative value is explicitly addressed, as seals should enjoy the presumption of integrity and the correctness of the origin of the attached data.
Identity number.
Database information has to be linked to some kind of identity number. To certify that a person has the right to access some personal information involves several steps.
eIDAS has as minimum identity concept, the name and birth date. But in order to access more sensitive information, some kind of certification is needed that identity numbers issued by two countries refer to the same person.
Vulnerabilities.
On October, 2019, two security flaws in "eIDAS-Node" (a sample implementation of the eID eIDAS Profile provided by the European Commission) were discovered by security researchers; both vulnerabilities were patched for version 2.3.1 of eIDAS-Node.
European Self-Sovereign Identity Framework.
The European Union is creating an eIDAS compatible European Self-Sovereign Identity Framework (ESSIF).