EU Service Directive, Digital Identity and ID Documents in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

In 2006, the European Union adopted the Services Directive, which establishes the obligation to establish unique points of contact through which citizens and businesses receive certain services from government bodies. The Services Directive unifies the services market throughout the European Union and creates an obligation for each Member State to improve its way of providing services to citizens. Citizens are accessing services through digital identities.
Having in mind that Bosnia and Herzegovina have for more than 65% turnover with EU countries, there is a need and legal obligation for the introduction of the same standards in the field of digital services and digital identities in BiH as in the EU. Citizens and businesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina need to have same position with competitive and compatible markets in EU countries. To validate digital identities, it is possible to use ID documents in BiH. This paper described the way of validating the digital identity in BiH using ID card or passport. ID documents issued according to ICAO 9303 standards and EU regulations must have embedded chips. These documents can be used to access electronic services as well as for digital identity verification.