The eEurope Smart Card (eESC) initiative was launched by the European Commission in December 1999 as an immediate outcome of the eEurope initiative.
Objectives
It aims to accelerate and harmonise the development of smart cards across Europe and to establish them in all shapes and forms as the preferred mobile and secure access key to citizen and business information society services.

	Interoperability: - Build a consensus for system interoperability. - Harmonise smart cards based infrastructures across sectors.
	Multi-application cards: - Advance smart card technology for seamless use of multi-application cards. - Contribute to the development of innovative applications and services.
	Security of transactions: - Agree on common protection profiles and specifications. - Develop certification services and cryptography support.
	User Acceptance of Smart cards: - Build user trust and confidence. - Offer guidelines and best practices for meeting user requirements.
	Accessibility: - Provide user friendly, easy to use services. - Enable access anytime, anywhere.

In order to achieve these goals, the project was based on strong links to European standardization and with related initiatives in other geographical areas.

The various outcomes from the two-year industry driven action plan result in a set of common specifications CSv2 containing guidelines, best practices, technical specifications and requirements for political, legislative or technical action.
eESC deliverables will be used to support mass deployment of smart card systems which will benefit the entire smart card community.