480 participants, representing 277 organisations, attended the smart event conferences in Sophia Antipolis on 20-22 September 2006. In addition to “eSmart”, 7th edition, “World eID” and “Smart University”, a new session dedicated to “Ambient intelligence” was inaugurated this year. The conferences attracted journalists from the general and specialised press, as well as the KBS, Korean Broadcasting System.

Jacques Seneca opened the sessions and underlined the role of Eurosmart as a catalyst for the smart card industry and its role to speed up the technology, encourage convergence and foster new applications. The Chairman announced a Vision Paper of the smart card industry – 2020 (possible publication in March 2007) and asked the audience to contribute to its content. A questionnaire will also be posted on this web site soon.

Bertrand Ducastel, moderator of the round table, organised a quizz around various questions linked to the future of the smart card. Answers from the experts and the floor showed that the smart card technology is attracting powerful platforms such as Microsoft, will continue to secure and provide services inside mobile phones for many years even if more security will also be provided by the handset and is well prepared for the security market as a whole.

Download Jacques Seneca’s presentation NEW

Eurosmart supports the vote of the EU Parliament for strong security requirements on certification and evaluation of payment products and systems included in the New Legal Framework for Payments in Europe - The smart card industry welcomed the positive vote on the new article 23 b) on “Mutual recognition of security certification of cards and accepting devices” of the ECON parliamentary committee on 12 September 2006. The smart card industry strongly supports the adoption of a common certification and security evaluation methods at the European level, whereas some actors would like to leave it to self-regulation. Eurosmart hopes such ground rules will remain in the final EU law to be adopted at the end of the year.

Download the letter sent by the Chairman on this issue. NEW

The Finnish Presidency leads discussions on the European innovation policy

Innovation appears as the central thematic of the Finnish Presidency and will be discussed by the Heads of States and Governments of the EU during their informal meeting on 20th October in Lahti, Finland. The European Commission has adopted on 13 September a programme in 10 points on how to foster innovation as a main asset of the economy both at national and European level. This programme will form the basis of the discussion in Lahti, as well as France’s contribution to a digital Europe that has been sent by the French Deputy Minister of the Industry François Loos to all his European counterparts. Cluster policy is becoming an important element of Member States' innovation policies as reflected in the National Reform Programmes, and is supported by Community instruments and funding. The smart card industry is organised as such in 2 important French Clusters.

EC Programme on Innovation