. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/Notif.00/152
7 April 2000
(00-1409)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade
NOTIFICATION
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   BELGIUM
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):   Belgium
2. Agency responsible:
Ministry of Economic Affairs
Quality and Safety Administration
Accreditation Division – Electronic Signature Service
Boulevard du Roi Albert II, 16
B -1000 Brussels
Tel:  +32 2 206 47 09Fax:  +32 2 206 57 43
Agency or authority designated to handle comments regarding the notification shall be
indicated if different from above:           
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [  X ], 2.10.1 [    ], 5.6.2 [    ], 5.7.1 [    ], other:           
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   Electronic-signature
products;  certificates;  qualified certificates (Article 2, items 12, 9 and 10 of
Directive 1999/93/EC of 13 December 1999)
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Draft Law on the
Activity of Certification-Service-Providers for the Use of Electronic Signatures
6. Description of content:   The Draft Law is based overall on Directive 1999/93/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council on a Community Framework for ElectronicSignatures, and deals with the same main principles:  technological neutrality, voluntary
accreditation schemes and the legal effect of electronic signatures.
It establishes a legal framework for the use of electronic signatures and for the
activities of certification-service-providers.  It is made up of five chapters:
1. Definitions and scope:  the definitions comply with Directive 1999/93/EC;
the Draft Law applies to the provision of certification services over open
networks.G/TBT/Notif.00/152
Page 2
6. Description of content:  (cont'd)
2. General principles:  the freedom of certification-service providers to ask for
accreditation or not;  the freedom of any natural or legal person to use an
electronic or a handwritten signature unless there is a law, a decree or an
ordinance preventing this, and their freedom to consult a
certification-service-provider, whether it is accredited or not.  Finally, legalrecognition of advanced electronic signatures.
3. The legal system applicable to certification-service-providers with a clear
distinction between the obligations of accredited providers and of those
which are not accredited.
4. Obligations of certificate users (certificate holders and message recipients).
5. Supervision of accredited certification-service-providers and penalties in
case of infringements.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 7 of Directive 1999/93/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council on a Community Framework for Electronic
Signatures, the conditions of mutual recognition have been laid down in Article 19 of the
Draft Law.
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:
For various reasons, it is necessary in the short-term to establish a legal framework
in Belgium for the use of electronic signatures and the activities ofcertification-service-providers.  The main reasons are:
• The absence of a legal framework is significantly hindering the
development of electronic services in Belgium;
• a legal framework is also needed to ensure improved consumer protection,
and, more generally, improved protection of the less-advantaged sector,
which is increasingly in contact with the new information and
communication technologies.  This phenomenon, moreover, has beenintensified over recent months with the appearance of free access suppliers
on the market;
• the introduction of telematics into the public sector is slowed down by the
relatively uncertain status of electronic signatures in administrative
procedures;  and
• there is a risk that divergent initiatives looking to allow the use of electronic
signatures (mostly digital signatures based on asymmetric cryptography)could be adopted for restricted application and could lead to an
uncontrolled spread and incompatibilities in the short term.
8. Relevant documents:
9. Proposed date of adoption:
Proposed date of entry into force: }60 days
10. Final date for comments:
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [  X ] or address, e-mail and telefax
number of the other body:   CIBELNOR