
Article 1 

1. Member States shall put in place the necessary technical means allowing them to process electronically signed documents that service providers submit in the context of completing procedures and formalities through the Points of Single Contact as foreseen by Article 8 of Directive 2006/123/EC, and which are signed by competent authorities of other Member States with an XML, a CMS or a PDF advanced electronic signature at any conformance level or using an associated signature container at basic level provided these comply with the technical specifications listed in the Annex.
2. Member States whose competent authorities sign the documents referred to in paragraph 1 using other formats of electronic signatures than those referred to in that same paragraph, shall notify to the Commission existing validation possibilities that allow other Member States to validate the received electronic signatures online, free of charge and in a way that is understandable for non-native speakers unless the required information is already included in the document, in the electronic signature or in the electronic document carrier. The Commission will make that information available to all Member States.
Article 2 
This Decision shall apply from 1 August 2011.
Article 3 
This Decision is addressed to the Member States.
ANNEX

Advanced electronic signatures mentioned in Article 1 paragraph 1 of the Decision must comply with one of the following ETSI technical specifications:

XAdES Baseline Profile ETSI TS 103171 v.2.1.1
CAdES Baseline Profile ETSI TS 103173 v.2.2.1
PAdES Baseline Profile ETSI TS 103172 v.2.2.2



Associated signature container mentioned in Article 1 paragraph 1 of the Decision must comply with the following ETSI technical specifications:

Associated Signature Container Baseline Profile ETSI TS 103174 v.2.2.1

