Ana Karla Alves de Medeiros, SPOCS Technical Coordinator, will give a short presentation focusing on how SPOCS can use STORK solution during the session “Beyond STORK - take up by other Pilots” at the 4th STORK Industry Group Meeting (Thursday 17th March 2011, Leuven, Belgium).

The purpose of the meeting is for STORK experts and participants to provide industry stakeholders from across all Europe and other countries with a progress report on the project, delivering insight into the latest results achieved in the six live pilots and informing businesses with regard to how they can benefit from STORK and promote the sustainability of this interoperable solution. Industry Group Meeting will be attended by other large scale pilots from the CIP ICT Policy Support Programme to share experience and knowledge on eID and interoperability issues.

STORK is an ICT Policy Support Programme under the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). It involves 17 EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the UK and Iceland (as an EEA member). The timing and objectives of STORK are ideal for producing high impact and contributing to the proposed objectives of the Lisbon Ministerial Declaration (2007), that is to say interoperability among Member States and reduction of administrative bureaucracy. In the i2010 eGovernment Action Plan, EU Member States recognized the importance of electronic identification management. By 2010, they aim to provide secure and convenient electronic systems for European citizens and businesses accessing public services in any country of the European Union. These should work at local, regional or national levels and comply with data protection regulations.

The 4th STORK Industry Group Meeting will be opened and moderated by Vasilis Koulolias, Executive Director, Gov2u. Following the welcome address, Frank Leyman, Manager at FeDICT will present a short status report of the six live STORK pilots - Cross border Authentication for Electronic Services , SaferChat , Student Mobility , Electronic Delivery , Change of Address and the European Commission Authentication Service - updating the audience on the progress of STORK's interoperable infrastructure, which paves the way for new solutions so that citizens and business individuals can conduct eGovernment services in a secure, privacy-respecting and trustworthy way.

Also during the meeting, Andre Braunmandl, BSI Project Leader and co-chair of the STORK Project, will present how the eID infrastructure and technology provided by STORK can be used as the foundation to create novel added value services for businesses.

Vasilis Koulolias states: "This is an important meeting to update all stakeholders on the progress of STORK's interoperable infrastructure, the value it will deliver to eGovernment across the EU, as well as highlighting the many ways that industry can derive long-term benefit from the project's solution."