Qualified Electronic Archive (BE Digital Act)

Qualified Electronic Archiving

The Belgian Digital Act Law of 21 July 2016 implements the eIDAS Regulation 910/2014 in Belgium and adds the qualified electronic archive as an additional trust services. The certification scheme for the qualified electronic archive was finalised in April 2021 and defines requirements for Scanning Services and for Preservation Services for documents or other data.

The e-Archiving certification scheme is drafted in a way to maintain and exploit to a maximum the alignment with the conformity assessment and attestation practices developed for the European eIDAS framework of trust services and their providers. For this reason, an important part of the audit criteria for e-Archiving services and their providers are inspired by, or based on, the requirements and clauses of some general and specific European or international standards developed for eIDAS trust services. For the same reason, the process requirements for the conformity assessment of e-Archiving services and their providers is totally in line with the requirements applicable to the conformity assessment of eIDAS trust services.

The scheme defines two types of e-Archiving services:

The e-Archiving service for digitisation of information (IDS) relating to the scanning of paper-based documents with the aim of digitisation of the contained information, and the creation of a faithful and durable electronic copy of the document;
The long-term preservation e-Archiving service (LTPS) for retaining electronic documents or electronic information in a way as to preserve the enclosed information from loss and from any modification other than changes related to its preservation format or storage medium.
Common Requirements Digitisation Services Preservation Services

The scheme for the Qualified Electronic Archiving Services are aligned with the eIDAS Qualified Trust Services requirements and impose adherence with the General Policy Requirements for Trust Service Providers defined in ETSI EN 319 401.

The Scanning Services aim to transform paper documents into electronic form, to prepare them for archiving in the Preservation Service. The requirements for the Scanning Service are based on AFNOR NF Z42-26 (2017), which is a French standard for e-scanning services. The Scanning Service can be implemented and certified independently from the Preservation Service, and aims to create a trustworthy electronic equivalent of a paper document that can be validated and archived by a Qualified Trust Service Provider offering Qualified Preservation Services for the electronic archive.

The Preservation Services aim to provide the long term archiving capabilities for electronic documents or other data. The requirements for the Preservation Service are based on ETSI TS 119 511 Policy and security requirements for TSP providing LT preservation of digital signatures or general data using digital signature techniques and ISO 14641 Electronic document management Design and operation of an information system for the preservation of electronic documents.
The Preservation Service can also be implemented and certified independently from the Scanning Service, and aims to provide the long-term preservation capabilities for the electronic archive, provided by a Qualified Trust Service Provider.