Can Europe's governments manage identity?

Since its inception, the concept of the internal market has been enshrined in the European Commission (EC) as '... an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty' [1]. Within this market, optimising the flow of movement across borders is no easy task, especially in today's age of heightened security fears. It falls to identity management in electronic government to play a vital role in making processes more effective by providing the mechanisms through which identities of citizens and businesses can be managed safely across Europe's borders. Nevertheless, despite the concerted efforts that have been made by individual member states to ensure security on a national level through the better management of identity, the same cannot be said on a pan-European basis. To date, there is little understanding or even consensus on how electronic identities could be managed by governments in a cross-border context. As a result, there is a very real need to take a look at the most prominent themes that are emerging from research in this area, particularly with reference to market activity as more and more software and solution vendors brand products for identity management (IdM). This paper examines the increasingly complex domain of pan-European IdM for electronic government. It is based on research conducted and compiled by the author, during the last 24-months, and provides a vendor-neutral high-level examination of the critical business challenges facing the EC today. The research is vendor-neutral and populated by data obtained using diverse forms of data collection. These include interviews, questionnaires and participant observations conducted with the involvement of 17 European Member States as well as relevant industry experts. The paper concludes with a suggested strategic roadmap for Europe's governments and technology implementors.