Signature property in electronic document
In accordance with Section 3, Paragraph two of the electronic documents Law, an electronic document shall be regarded as self-signed if it has a secure electronic signature in conformity with the understanding of Article 3 (12) of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for the performance of electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (hereinafter - Regulation), namely, a secure electronic signature is an advanced electronic signature created with a qualified electronic signature creation device based on a qualified electronic signature certificate. . However, Section 3, Paragraph five of the electronic documents Law provides that in the circulation of electronic documents between State and local government institutions and natural and legal persons, an electronic document is to be regarded as signed if it has a secure electronic signature and a time stamp within the meaning of Section 3, Clause 34 of the Regulation. Section 26 of the electronic documents Law provides that a qualified certificate issued abroad has the legal status and legal consequences of a qualified certificate specified in this Law, if it has been issued by a trusted certification service provider registered with the supervisory authority of a Member State of the European Union or issued in accordance with Article 14 of the Regulation by a trusted certification service provider established in a third country. the at the same time provides for an exception from the abovementioned regulation from 6 January 2026, namely in accordance with Paragraph 8 of the transitional provisions of the electronic documents Law, if the Ukrainian certification service provider is included in the trusted list of third countries published by the European Commission, an electronic document shall be deemed to have been signed manually in the case when it has been signed with an electronic signature, the certificate of which has been issued by the abovementioned service providers. For such electronic documents, the requirement to use the time stamp is optional.
Electronic signature pursuant to the Regulation
Under the Regulation, there may be three types or three different security levels of electronic signatures: a simple electronic signature (Article 3 (10) of the Regulation), an advanced electronic signature (Article 3 (11) of the Regulation) and a qualified electronic signature (Article 3 (12) of the Regulation).
In Latvia, the legislator has stipulated that in the circulation of electronic documents between private individuals and public persons, documents must be signed with the highest security level signature, namely a secure or qualified electronic signature, which in addition must be accompanied by a qualified time stamp. . Consequently, if documents are signed with an electronic signature of a provider of trust services registered abroad, particular attention should be paid to whether the tools provided by the provider of trust services registered abroad ensure the addition of a qualified electronic signature to the document, as well as to the fact that, in addition to a qualified electronic signature, the document must also be accompanied by a qualified time stamp.
Format of the electronic document
the formats for the development and drawing up of electronic documents are listed in Paragraph 10 of Cabinet Regulation No. 473 of 28 June 2005, procedures for the Development, Drawing up, storing and circulation of electronic documents in State and local Government institutions and procedures for the circulation of electronic documents between State and local Government institutions or between such institutions and natural and legal persons (hereinafter - Regulation No. 473):
- plain text format;
- open Document Format (ODF) for Office applications;
- open Office XML (Office Open XML) file format;
- portable Document (PDF) Format or Portable Document Format for long-term storage (PDF/A);
- digitally compressed and encoded image (JPEG, TIFF, and PNG) format).
At the same time, Paragraph 10.1 of Regulation No. 473 stipulates that an EDOC format package may be used for sending or storing electronic documents on electronic data carriers. . If the institution uses formats other than those referred to in paragraphs 10 and 10.1 of this Regulation, the institution shall indicate information regarding it on its website or make it public in another way (Paragraph 11 of Regulation No. 473).
The above provides, inter alia, that electronic documents drawn up and drawn up in one of the abovementioned electronic document formats or other used by the Register, such as documents stored in the BDOC and ADOC format package, as well as in the uniform standard set by THE European Union (hereinafter – EU) – the AsiCe format package, shall be submitted to the Enterprise Register of the Republic of Latvia (hereinafter – the Register).
It should be recalled that in accordance with Section 4.10, Paragraph five of the Law on the Enterprise Register of the Republic of Latvia, the Register shall provide the information and documents included in the public part of the registration file (Section 4.15, Paragraph one) free of charge in online data transmission mode (including bulk download). . Consequently, the electronic document submitted to the register must be drawn up in such a format as to enable it to be opened, to become acquainted with the contents of the document and, accordingly, to be attached to the file for registration.
Article 3 (20) of the Regulation provides that a qualified trust service provider is a trust service provider providing one or more qualified trust services to which the supervisory authority has granted qualified status. Under Article 22 of the Regulation, Member States are required to draw up, maintain and publish trust lists containing information on qualified trust service providers and the qualified trust services they provide. . In order to ensure a public approach to the trust lists of all Member States, the European Commission (hereinafter referred to as “EC”) has compiled and made available the trust lists of Member States for https://eidas.ec.europa.eu/efda/tl-browser/#/screen/home (as long as the website remains unchanged).
The EC website also contains, inter alia, third country trust lists, https://eidas.ec.europa.eu/efda/tl-browser/#/screen/tc-tl in which the competent authority of the third country aggregates national trust service providers. The EC website only includes those third countries with which an agreement has been concluded on the recognition of third country electronic services in EU and European Economic area countries (hereinafter - EEA). Currently, Ukraine and Moldova are on this list a.. According to the EC, the purpose of the third country trust list is to facilitate the progress of third country electronic services towards the recognition of qualified electronic services under the Regulation and as a first step the inclusion of a third country in the third country trust list.
As a result of Ukraine's inclusion in the third countries' trusted list, electronic signatures and stamps issued in Ukraine have been recognised in EU and EEA countries. At the same time, it should be noted that for third countries on the Trust List, on the basis of Article 27(1) of the Regulation, these signatures are recognised as advanced electronic signatures in the addition, it should be noted that the amendments to the electronic documents Act entered into force on 6 January 2026, providing that the documents are also to be regarded as signed with electronic signatures issued in Ukraine, namely, in the event that the Ukrainian certification service provider is included in the EC published trusted list of third countries and the document is signed with an electronic signature, the certificate of which is issued by that services. For such electronic documents, the requirement to use the time stamp is optional.
Qualified validation service providers
Under Article 33(1) of the Regulation, qualified electronic signature validation services may be provided only by a qualified trust service provider who: (n) carry out validation in accordance with Article 32(1) of the Regulation and (b) allow dependent parties to receive validation results in an automated manner that is reliable and effective, ensuring that this document bears an advanced electronic signature or an advanced electronic seal of a qualified validation service provider. This means that anyone can (rather than be obliged) use one of the qualified validation service providers to verify the validity and level of qualification of the electronic signatures attached to the received document, such as whether the attached electronic signature is a qualified electronic signature or an advanced electronic signature s. The list of trust service providers compiled by the EC includes dozens of qualified validation service providers, but it should be noted that not all service providers provide free access to their “product”.
Electronic signatures and time stamps issued by the Latvian provider of electronic signatures and time stamps – the State stock company “Latvia State Radio and Television Centre” (hereinafter – LVRTC) – shall be verified in LVRTC tools, which are currently the following – website https://www.eparaksts.lv/lv/, eSignatory 3.0 and mobile application eParsignature LV.
However, electronic signatures contained in documents, which have been issued by a trusted service provider registered abroad, may be verified on the website of the European Commission (as long as the website is not changed) - a https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/DSS/webapp-demo/validation (hereinafter - European Commission tool) which is available to everyone and free of charge. Although this European Commission tool does not constitute a tool of a qualified validation service provider, it is a way to get an idea of the level of qualification, validity and overall existence of the electronic signature, time stamp, electronic stamp attached to the document. If a qualification level is indicated as qualified (QESig) in the tool of the European Commission for an electronic signature and at the same time a qualified time stamp (QTSA) is detected, it is likely that the referred to document will be deemed to have been signed in accordance with Section 3, Paragraph five of the electronic documents Law.