CAcert Organisation Assurance Program sub-policy for EU countries and Norway

Author: Teus Hagen
Creation date: 2008-05-01
Status: WiP 2008-05-02
Next status: DRAFT 2008
$Id: OrganisationAssuranceSubPolicyEuropeanUnion.html,v 1.1 2008/08/14 09:42:01 teus Exp teus $

0. Preliminaries

This CAcert sub-policy extends the Organisation Assurance Policy ("OAP") by specifying how Organisation Assurance is to be conducted by the assigned Organisation Assurer ("OA") under the supervision of the Organisation Assurance Officer ("OAO") for entities within the defined scope.

1. Scope

This sub-policy is applicable to organisations registered with the trade office registry as tabled in paragraph 3.1 of this sub-policy:

1. Legal entities in the EU country and Norway:
   
   1. Government Bodies & Intrumentalities;
   2. Private Owned Companies;
   3. Limited Companies;
   4. Clubs & Associations;
   5. Cooperations and mutual safeguarding societies;
   6. Foundations;
   7. Sole Trader or Sole Professional;
   8. Partnerships: Trade, Commanditair, Free Profession;
   9. Churches/Religious Groups.
2. European legal entities: European Economic Collaboration (EESV), European Limited Company (SE), European Cooperation (SCE).
3. Foreign legal entities subjected to foreign jurisdiction but active in mainly in the EU country.The entity has registration duties in the EU (fin. year report, extract foreign TRO, accountant report. E.g. Private Limited Company (Ltd) in UK foreign jusrisdiction but mainly active in an EU country.

2. Requirements

This section describes any scope specific requirements that are not otherwise defined in the OAP.

2.1 Organisation

1. For Applicants with individual liability operating under their own name business name registration is OPTIONAL.
2. Applicants MUST be a valid legal entity but MAY have an arbitrary number of registered trading names.

2.2 Records

1. Digital Signatures MAY be accepted under implementation of EU European Directive 99/93/EG and EU national act:

   Austria:	Signature Law 2000
   Belgium:	Signature Law 9-7-2001 F.2001-2699
   Bulgaria:
   Cyprus:
   Czech Republic:	Act on Electronic Signatures, 227/2000
   Denmark:	Lov om elektroniske signaturer
   Estonia:	Digital Signature Law, 2000 (in Estonian).
   	Digital Signatures Act (consolidated text Dec 2003)
   Finland:	Laki sähköisistä allekirjoituksista, 2003 (in Finnish)
   France:
   Germany:	German Signature Law of 2001, changed in 2005
   Greece:	Presidential Decree 150/2001 (in Greek)
   Hungary:
   Ireland:	Irish Electronic Commerce Act, 2000
   Italy:	Decreto legislativo 7/3/2005, n. 82 (Codice dell'Amministrazione Digitale)
   Latvia:
   Lithuania:	Law on electronic signature, 2002
   Luxembourg:	Loi du 14 août 2000 relative au commerce électronique, 2000 (in French)
   Malta:	Maltese Electronic Commerce Act 2001, last amended 2005
   Netherlands:	Wet Elektronische Handtekeningen (WET) of 21st of May 2003 (in Dutch)
   Norway:	Electronic Signature Act, 2001 (in Norwegian).
   Poland:
   Portugal:
   Romania:	Legea semnăturii electronice, 455/2001
   	Law on the Electronic Signature, 455/2001 (unofficial translation)
   Slovakia:
   Slovenia:	Electronic Business and Electronic Signature Act (in Slovene)
   Spain:	Ley 59/2003 , de 19 de diciembre, de firma electrónica (in Spanish)
   Sweden:	Qualified Electronic Signatures Act (SFS 2000:832)) (in Swedish)
   	SFS 2000:832 in English translation
   Switzerland:	Federal Law on Certification Services Concerning the Electronic Signature, 2003
   United Kingdom:	Electronic Communications Act, 2000
   	The Electronic Signatures Regulations 2002 (SI 2002 No. 2013)

   
   Comment: The legal requirement is that there is sufficient evidense and trust. This is the case for a digital certificate that can be checked.
2. Historic documents MAY be accepted where it can be proven that material changes have not been made (eg via absence of subsequent submissions in official document listings).

2.3 Application Form

1. The licensing authority MUST be specified where applicable.
   This is OPTIONAL for sole traders, sole professionals and partnerships operating under their own name(s).
   
2. The registry Identifier MUST be specified where applicable.
   This is OPTIONAL for sole traders and partnerships operating under their own name(s).

3. Registration

3.1 Trade Office Registries

3.2 Domain Registries

Every European country has a Domain Registry for the ccTLD country code. Domain registration of a organisation domain is checked with national Domain Registry.

3.2 Registry Identifiers

1. Trade Office Registration Identifier, a unique registration number.

3.3 Documents

1. Extract from trade office registry.

4. Processes

4.1 Assurance

1. Each person listed in an application MUST be individually assured and referenced by a confirmed email.
2. All entities MUST be verified by a KvK search (all Dutch organisations including ministries and public offices, religious societies, liberal professions, partnerships, one-man business, association of house-owners, etc. must be registered from 31st of December 2009).
3. Partnership applicants MUST additionally be verified via an Extract as a current individual member and SHOULD be a managing partner.
4. Company applications MUST be made by an individual who is duly authorised to sign on behalf of the company:
   1. Officeholder applicants (directors or preferably secretary) MUST be verified in an "Extract" (obtained from the KvK by the OA where fees are reclaimable from the applicant).
   2. Any other applicant MUST prove that they are duly authorised to sign on behalf of the entity (for example via delegation and/or under company rules) to the satisfaction of the OA, for approval by the OAO.