Statute

1. Scope

FESA (Forum of European Supervisory Authorities for trust service providers) was founded in 2002 with the aim to support cooperation among bodies responsible for the operation of systems of supervision as defined in Art. 3.3 of Directive 1999/93/EC¹.

With regard to the Regulation (EU) No 910/2014² (eIDAS), FESA intends to continue its work, contributing to the establishment and improvement of a comprehensive cross-border and cross-sector framework for secure, trustworthy and easy-to-use electronic transactions in the European Union.

Supporting the idea of the Digital Agenda for Europe, FESA - as association of the European supervisory bodies over trust service providers according to eIDAS - sees itself as experienced and competent body that supports the cooperation, information and assistance among the members and facilitates the exchange of views and agreement on good practices.

FESA intends to advance the harmonization of the supervisory bodies' activities, to develop common points of view for the dialog with political or technical institutions, in particular the European Commission and standardization institutions, and to establish a levelled European playing field for trust service providers in terms of supervision.

The Forum is no legal entity.

Performing their supervisory activities, the members cannot be bound by decisions of the Forum.

2. Full members

The following institutions are invited to become full member of the Forum by applying to the Board:

a) national bodies responsible for supervision over trust service providers according to eIDAS from all European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) member states,

b) national bodies responsible for establishing, maintaining and publishing national trusted lists according to eIDAS from all EU and EEA member states,

c) comparable bodies from EU candidate states, and

d) upon qualified majority vote, comparable bodies from other countries that have transposed or intend to transpose the eIDAS.

The Board confirms or rejects the membership. If the Board rejects the application, it has to give the reasons for the rejection.

Full members decide on their representatives in the Forum.

Each year full members who did not send representatives to the last year's meetings and did not participate in the discussions on the mailing list will be asked by email whether they still want to be a full member or like to change to the status of an associate member. If the full member remains inactive (e.g. does not answer to this request within one month) the member's status is set to associate member.

A full member that does not fulfil the criteria to apply for full membership anymore has the duty to inform the Board of this. On the next meeting of the Forum, the Forum decides by qualified majority vote if the full member, can keep their membership or lose it. In cases of doubt about fulfilling the criteria to be a full member the assembly of the Forum can decide through qualified majority vote.

The Board keeps a directory of the full members of the group.

3. Associate members

National bodies responsible for supervision or for establishing, maintaining and publishing national trusted lists from countries that are not members of the EU or the EEA and are not EU-membership candidates or national bodies responsible for voluntary accreditation or approval schemes with regard to products or services comparable to those within the scope of the eIDAS regulation, may apply for associate membership if they have an interest in discussing the matters within the scope of the Forum. The applications may be granted by a qualified majority vote.

The European Commission, the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) have the rights of associate members.

Associate members may attend the assembly of the Forum and have similar rights to the full members, except that they do not have the right to vote, cannot be elected to the Board and have no access to the full member´s mailing list and the member's area of FESA´s Website. Upon request of a full member or associate member, the Board can decide that specific issues must be discussed only among full members.

Associate members decide on their representatives in the Forum.

Full members that wish to keep an observing status can become associated members on request or in cases of permanent inactivity. When an associate member fulfils the criteria to be a full member and wishes to be an active full member, they can apply to the Board to become a full member.

Each year associate members who did not send representatives to the last year's meetings and did not participate in the discussions on the mailing list will be asked by email whether they still want to be an associate member or would like to be removed from the directory of members. If the associate member remains inactive (e.g. does not answer to this request within one month) the member is removed from the directory of members and from the mailing lists.

The Board keeps a directory of the associate members of the group. In cases of doubt about fulfilling the criteria to be an associate member the assembly of the Forum can decide through qualified majority vote.

4. Guests

The Board can invite guests according to the agenda of a meeting.

5. Assembly of the Forum

The Forum meets regularly. The Board invites for the meeting of the assembly at least two times a year or if five members request it.

The meetings are organized in a hybrid way in order to give all delegates from the members the opportunity to join the meetings either online or in person. In specific situations it can be necessary to have discussions only with the members that are participating at the location in person.

Invitations must be sent at least one month in advance. In order to join the meeting either online or in person, members have to register at least one week before the meeting. Joining online is only permitted if online participant uses the name under which they have been registered for the meeting.

6. Setting up of documents and publications

Following the Forum´s intention to advance the harmonization of the supervisory bodies' activities, to develop common points of view for the dialog with political or technical institutions and to establish a levelled European playing field for trust service providers in terms of supervision, FESA aggregates all member´s opinions with regard to specific topics. The board has the duty to try to harmonize differing positions and to create consolidated documents that can be published as harmonized view of the members.

FESA members agree that the Board will create documents and where appropriate publish these documents as a harmonized FESA position, if this has been legitimated by qualified majority vote. If no agreement about a harmonized view of FESA can be reached, e.g. because the time is too short for regular voting procedure, the board will publish the separate opinions of those members who agree that their view will be part of a publication that will make transparent the authorship.

7. Decisions of the Forum

Each country with at least one full member has the right to one vote and has one voice.

If the numbers of votes for and against a proposal are equal, the chair of the Board has a casting vote. The chair of the Board does not have a casting vote on issues concerning the election or dismissal of the Board or board members.

7.1 Majority vote

If not explicitly stated in the statute voting is done through simple majority.

For decisions which require a qualified majority vote, at least half of the countries with full members must be represented at the meeting in person or online and at least 2/3rd of the votes must be positive. If the voting is done using a written voting procedure, qualified majority voting requires at least half of the countries with full members must be represented in the vote and at least 2/3rd of the votes must be positive.

For decisions which require simple majority vote half of the countries with full members must be represented at the meeting in person or online and a majority of the votes must be positive. If the voting is done using written voting procedure simple majority requires at least half of the countries with full members must be represented in the vote and a majority of the votes must be positive.

7.2 Voting procedures

The Forum can decide which voting procedure should be used. The Board can suggest which voting procedure should be used.

Presence voting

Presence voting is possible, if all full members have been invited and the topics for decision have been included in the invitation. Only full members that are represented (in person or online) at the assembly of the Forum have the right to vote.

Ballot voting

Ballot voting is possible, if all full members have been invited and the topics for decision have been included in the invitation. The Board has to be clear to the members at least 1 month in advance that a ballot voting is to be held. A ballot vote can also be held even though it was not prior informed or if a full member asks for it.

If a member is present online at the meeting and wants to vote, the vote should be sent to the Board. The Board will not disclose what each member voted for but will summarize the result in numbers.

Written voting

The use of the written voting procedure is announced by the Board using electronic means. In this case, the proposal to be decided upon is distributed to the members by the Board along with the announcement. The Board also sets a deadline not shorter than 14 calendar days from the day of the announcement for voting.

Members may cast their votes using electronic means. Within five days after the deadline, the Board officially announces the result of the voting procedure and publishes the final text of the decision adopted, if any. Before the deadline, any full member has the right to request the use of the presence voting procedure. In this case the written voting procedure is terminated without result and the issue is examined at the next meeting of the assembly.

8. Board

The Board consists of a chair, a vice chair, a secretary and up to two more board members. Each board member must be a representative of a full member.

The Board is elected by the Forum. The members of the Board are elected separately. The Forum decides whether the votes are given open or by ballot vote.

If a candidate does not get the simple majority of valid votes in the first vote, a second election decides among the two candidates with the most votes. If only one candidate is nominated, this candidate needs the simple majority of attending members.

The Board is elected for a period of two years starting from the day of the election until the corresponding FESA meeting two years after the election. Board members can resign at any time. A board member loses its function, if the board member stops being a representative of a full member or if the full member leaves the Forum. When a board member resigns or loses its function, a new board member can be elected for a period of two years starting from the day of the election until the corresponding FESA meeting two years after the election. At any time, the Forum can decide to elect a new Board, a board member or board members.

If the chair leaves the board the vice chair takes over or a temporary chair is chosen by the board. The vice chair or the temporary chair acts as chair until the next meeting of the Forum. The temporary chair must already be part of the board.

9. Duties of the Board

The Board shall:

a) call the assembly of the Forum and prepare the meeting in cooperation with the hosting member,

b) decide on the agenda of these meetings and select persons for moderating the discussion,

c) invite guests to the meetings according to the agenda and the Forum's statute,

d) take and distribute the minutes of the meetings,

e) try to harmonize differing positions and to create consolidated documents that can be published as harmonized view of the members,

f) keep an updated directory of members.

The Board comes to its decisions through simple majority voting.

The Board is represented by the Chair. If the Chair is not able to represent the Board, the vice chair steps in. If neither the Chair nor the vice chair are able to represent the Board, another board member that the Board has agreed on, will represent the Board.

¹ Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 on a Com-munity framework for electronic signatures, OJ L 13, 19.1.2000, p. 12

² Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC, (eIDAS), OJ L 257, 28.08.2014, p. 73

2002-06-17, 1st amendment 2005-03-01, 2nd amendment 2005-06-21, 3rd amendment 2006-10-20, 4th amendment 2008-11-05, 5th amendment 2010-04-14, 6th amendment 2016-07-01, 7th amendment 2019-10-17, 8th amendment 2025-09-22