Mapping European IDABC Authentication Levels to SAML 2.0 - Gap analysis and recommendations

In 2004 the European Commission (EC) launched 1 the IDABC (Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens) program to encourage and support the delivery of cross-border public sector services to citizens and enterprises in Europe by means of information and communication technologies. User identification and authentication are the cornerstones of this project. Interoperability of European eID Management (eIDM) solutions is of outmost importance for the success of the project. For this reason, IDABC conducted and report on eID Interoperability for PEGS (Pan-European eGovernment Services) in order to analyze eID and authentication interoperability requirements. One of the objectives of this analysis was to propose and study the impact of a multi-level authentication mechanism and derive common specifications for interoperable eID in the EU This effort resulted in a series of documents setting up the eID Interoperability Framework 2 .