Seneca’s first action as chairman of Eurosmart was to broaden the current steering committee to make sure all segments of the industry are properly represented: smart cards, semiconductors, terminals and equipment manufacturers as well as system integrators will bring their contribution to the strategic and administrative management of the Association. According to Jacques Seneca, the Association and its members should reinforce the message of interoperability between devices and continue the effort launched on electronic identity (eID). “Governments are facing important challenges relating to interoperability and security. Our industry has a full set of solutions to offer and the timing is good to take actions”, said M. Seneca. Eurosmart is already a major contributor to the ongoing work on eID launched at the European level, and pushes in favour of harmonised concepts for eGovernment purposes. “Indeed the visibility of our industry has grown regarding e-Passports, eID and e-Healthcare cards but not yet at the right level regarding IT and networks access related security matters”, underlined M. Seneca. Eurosmart is regularly consulted by the European Institutions on technical aspects related to the security of payment products and systems, as well as the feasibility and choice of options regarding e-passports implementation. Eurosmart will, from now on, strengthen its efforts to gain visibility in the Information and Technology world. “Eurosmart is the ideal framework to promote our ideas”, said Olivier Piou, Eurosmart chairman from April 2003 to April 2006 and CEO of Axalto. During the past years, the priority for Eurosmart and its members has been to inform the general public and decision makers on privacy and security issues related to the various uses of smart cards. florence.gras@eurosmart.com www.eurosmart.com