From national certified email systems to European registered email systems: a case study

Since 2006 the European Union has addressed the problem of the interoperability of Certified eMail Systems of Member States, in order to promote data and document exchange among Member States and to foster economic growth, as well as simplify administrative tasks within the Digital Single Market. In the last twenty years EU Member States introduced their own national certified email systems such as Posta Elettronica Certificata (PEC) in Italy, but cross-border interoperability is still lacking. In 2019, ETSI defined the Registered EMail (REM) Specifications. This implies migrating from the current EU national certified email system to the new REM architecture. This paper discusses how the Italian government is approaching this transition process, presenting the main differences between the national certified email system (PEC) and the REM. Based on the experience gained, a few suggestions are proposed for policy makers who need to address similar challenges.