Detlef Eckert, an adviser at DG XIII, said at the conference that it will recommend policies be transparent, free of bureaucratic burdens for users, and promote the free-flow of products within Europe, but he declined to discuss whether the matter of key recovery is treated. It will also urge EC nations to develop uniform legal recognition for digital signatures. The communication would represent the most concrete sign that Europe intends to resist U.S. policy designed to create a system of international accords on key recovery for law enforcement. It comes alongside the United States' unexpected lurch towards heavy domestic and international encryption controls by Congress and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Although a communication is a low-level policy paper, it is often used as the first step towards developing formal policies.
Officials say it is meant to rally Europe to resist key recovery policies.
The paper is also significant because it diverges dramatically from an unpublished EC report, due in September 1996, that was said to lean heavily in favor of crypto restrictions. The Council of Europe, an intergovernmental organization separate from the EU, has no powers to enforce recommendations. Four separate projects have proven TTPs are technical, commercial and legal failures, said an EC official. The X.509-style directory system has a hierarchical rather than network structure, meaning that it is difficult to deploy on a mass basis. The TTPs' expenses have also encountered cost overruns from initial projections.