New ID card comes with a chip and a pin number

The soft roll-out of new electronic identity cards will start as of next Wednesday 12 February, three years after MITA - the government's IT agency - announced the roll-out would start towards mid-2012.

The last rollout of ID cards took place 11 years ago.

Although very similar to the old ID card, the new ID card has a new feature: it comes equipped with a chip containing two certificates recognised worldwide. The first is the authentication certificate - marking that the ID card is not a fake - the second is the signature certificate as the applicant signs directly on an electronic pad which transfers the data onto the card.

Thanks to the chip, the cardholder is also provided with a pin number to access government services available online.

With the new ID card, there is also an effort to reduce red tape as the Kartanzjan (pensioners' card) will be incorporated in the e-ID.

Godwin Grima, former head of civil service appointed by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to head a five-man task force, explained that the soft roll-out will be on a "need basis".

"This means that, for now, the new ID card will be given to those who apply because theirs has been lost, stolen, they got married or changed address or they're applying for their first ID card," Grima said.

An average of 1,500 such requests are received every week. The mass roll-out will take place at a later stage, giving the government enough time to decide on what would be the best way to implement the necessary changes.

Although the roll-out of new ID cards has been in the pipeline for years, it was repeatedly postponed due to general elections.

"There was a consensus that the roll-out does not take place on the eve of an election," Grima said, admitting that lack of financial resources and human resources had also been a problem.

The section responsible of the ID cards has been moved from Evans Building in Valletta to Gattard House in Blata l-Bajda. The move, a spokesperson for Home Affairs said, was to facilitate parking and access to the general public.

The €7.7 million project is being funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in line with the EU's digital agenda.

In 2012, the European Commission proposed new rules to secure electronic transactions in Europe. The proposed regulation will ensure people and businesses can use their own national electronic identification schemes (e-IDs) to access public services in other EU countries where e-IDs are available.

The Commission said the proposed regulation also creates an internal market for e-signatures and related online trust services across borders, by ensuring these services will work across borders and have the same legal status as traditional paper-based processes.

According to a 2012 report that appeared by EurActiv, despite the EU's efforts to increase the security of e-signatures and the confidence in the emergence of virtual identities, citizens and governments have been slow to adopt electronic IDs.

"Even if chip-embedded passports are becoming the norm across Europe, e-ID cards have been adopted in only in a handful of countries - Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. But there is no common system of mutual recognition among states using electronic IDs," EurActiv reported.