EU and Egypt bring Partnership forward by advancing cooperation on electronic signatures and seals

The European Commission and Egypt have reached an important milestone in their digital cooperation, and a significant deliverable of the EU-Egypt Summit of 22 October 2025, by achieving technical alignment of electronic signatures and seal schemes between the European Union and Egypt.

Following the successful completion of the technical assessment of Egypt's Trusted List for Electronic Signatures and Seal Schemes under the eIDAS Regulation, Egypt will be incorporated into the EU Third Countries Trusted List. This confirms technical compatibility and alignment between EU and Egyptian electronic signature and seal schemes and allows their validation by EU Member States.

This development makes Egypt the first country outside Europe whose electronic signatures framework is technically aligned with the EU's, contributing to simplifying cross-border government and business exchanges. It will facilitate exchanges based on electronic documents with an advanced level of trust.

The work on electronic signatures and seals is part of a broader effort and expressed shared interest to deepen EU-Egypt digital cooperation, as set out in the EU-Egypt Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership and reiterated in the Joint EU-Egypt Summit Statement of October 2025. This is in line with the objectives of Pact for the Mediterranean, which sets out the sharing of expertise and concrete e-Governance solutions in the area of trusted services, digital identity, secured connectivity, data protection, and compliant DPI solutions, as priority areas for cooperation with the Southern Neighbourhood region.

As part of its International Digital Strategy, the European Commission is aiming to conclude similar tracks with other third countries in the coming months.

Background

The work on electronic signatures and seals is part of a broader effort to deepen EU-Egypt digital cooperation, following the expressed interest by both parties in closer digital cooperation as set out the EU-Egypt Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership of 17 March 2024.

This deliverable also sets an important milestone in the objectives of the European Commission to achieve technical recognition of electronic signatures or seals created in third countries as meeting the requirements of (EU) advanced electronic signatures or seals in accordance with the eIDAS Regulation (amended in 2024 by the Digital Identity Framework).

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