Electronic Signature for Territorial Authorities in...

Why electronic signature has become essential for territorial authorities

Digitisation of administrative procedures is today a priority for municipalities, départements, regions and local public establishments. Since the entry into force of ordinance no. 2014-1329 of 6 November 2014 relating to remote deliberations of deliberative bodies of local authorities, and even more so with the Action Publique 2022 programme driven by the government, electronic signature for local authorities has established itself as a strategic lever for modernisation. In 2026, local authorities at every level are deploying digital signature solutions, and the movement is now extending to municipalities with fewer than 3,500 inhabitants.

The generalisation of contract dematerialisation within territorial authorities — public procurement, partnership agreements, deliberations, ordinances — responds to a threefold logic: operational efficiency, legal security and citizen demand for transparency. This article guides you through the regulatory foundations, applicable signature levels, concrete use cases and best practices to adopt to succeed in your digital transition.

A regulatory context in full consolidation

The European public procurement directive (2014/24/EU), transposed into French law by decree No. 2016-360, requires complete dematerialisation of public procurement procedures above € 40,000 excluding tax since 1 October 2018. In parallel, the eIDAS regulation No. 910/2014 has established a harmonised framework for mutual recognition of electronic signatures throughout the member states, a foundation that the eIDAS 2.0 revision (Regulation EU 2024/1183, which entered into force in May 2024) strengthens further with the introduction of the European digital identity portfolio (EUDIW).

For territorial authorities, this means concretely that any act binding the legal person — municipal ordinance, public procurement, public service delegation agreement — can and must be able to be signed electronically, provided the right signature level is chosen according to the nature and risk of the act.

The three levels of electronic signature applicable to territorial authorities

The eIDAS regulation distinguishes three signature levels, whose relevance varies according to the administrative act in question.

Simple electronic signature (SES)

Simple electronic signature constitutes the minimum level. It is based on electronic data attached to other data (a click of acceptance, a verified email address) without third-party certification requirement. It is suitable for acts with low legal risk: receipts, internal convocations, common administrative forms. For a municipality, it can be used for managing online registrations or confirming administrative appointments.

Caution: simple signature offers only limited presumption of reliability and its enforceability in litigation can be contested. It is therefore unsuitable for contracts involving significant expenditure or acts subject to legality review.

Advanced electronic signature (AES)

Advanced signature is uniquely linked to the signatory, allows identifying them, is created from data that the signatory can keep under their exclusive control, and is linked to the signed data in such a way as to detect any subsequent modification. It generally relies on a digital certificate issued by a qualified trust service provider (QTSP) listed on the French trust list (Trust Service Status List – TSL).

For public procurement below threshold and inter-territorial authority partnership agreements, advanced signature represents a good balance between security and operational fluidity. Many modern SaaS solutions, including Certyneo, enable deployment of this level with strong authentication (SMS OTP + document verification), without requiring a physical key.

Qualified electronic signature (QES)

Qualified signature is the highest level provided for by eIDAS. It necessarily relies on a qualified certificate issued by an accredited QTSP, and is generally created using a qualified signature creation device (QSCD) — smart card, USB token or, since eIDAS 2.0, remote qualified signature creation service. It benefits from a legal presumption of equivalence to handwritten signature in all member states (Article 25§2 of the eIDAS regulation).

This signature is recommended — or even mandatory — for the most sensitive acts: delegations of signature of the mayor or president of departmental council, major public procurement, acts subject to prefectural legality review. The cost and implementation complexity are higher, but the absolute legal security it provides makes it the indisputable standard for territorial authorities managing a large volume of high-stakes contracts.

For a comparative view of the solutions available on the market, the comparison of electronic signature solutions from Certyneo will enable you to quickly evaluate offers according to your budgetary and technical constraints.

Dematerialisation of contracts: which acts are concerned in practice?

The dematerialisation of contracts in municipalities and town halls covers a very wide spectrum of administrative acts. Understanding which ones are priority enables organised, controlled deployment.

Public procurement and framework agreements

Since the decree of 22 March 2019 setting out the arrangements for making consultation documents available and communication between buyers and economic operators, electronic signature is mandatory for formalised procurement (thresholds > € 215,000 excluding tax for supplies and services). The AAPC (Public Call for Competition Notice), the CCAP, the CCTP and commitment acts must be signed by the legal representative of the territorial authority and by the market holder.

The buyer profile (public procurement dematerialisation platform) must be interoperable with signature tools. API integration with a solution like Certyneo enables automated document sending, signature collection and evidential value archiving in a digital safe compliant with NF Z 42-013.

Agreements and deliberations

Public service delegation agreements (DSP), domain occupation agreements, partnership agreements with associations or other legal entities, as well as deliberations of the municipal council or deliberative assembly can all be dematerialised. For the latter, Decree No. 2020-1407 of 18 November 2020 has relaxed the conditions for using remote meetings, paving the way for electronic signature of minutes.

Civil status records and administrative ordinances

Hazard ordinances, administrative police ordinances, urban planning acts (building permits, prior declarations) can also be signed electronically. The Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (DILA) has developed the @ctes portal for dematerialised transmission of acts subject to legality review to the prefecture, with electronic signature integration of the mayor or president.

If your territorial authority is also deploying electronic signature in its HR processes — recruitment, contract amendments, training — the guide dedicated to electronic signature for HR will provide you with a precise reference framework.

Choosing and deploying a digital signature solution adapted to public constraints

Territorial authorities face specific constraints that general market solutions do not always integrate: data hosting on national or European soil, compatibility with existing information systems (Berger-Levrault, Sedit Marianne, Civil Net...), management of delegated authorisations, and traceability requirements for legal archiving.

Solution selection criteria compliant with requirements

Several criteria should guide the choice:

• Service provider qualification: the service provider must be listed on the national trust list (French TSL published by ANSSI) or on the consolidated European list (EU Trusted Lists). eIDAS qualification is a non-negotiable minimum guarantee.
• Sovereign hosting: data processed by territorial authorities often come under administrative secrecy or personal data within the meaning of the GDPR. Hosting certified HDS (Healthcare Data Hosting) or qualified SecNumCloud is strongly recommended for the most sensitive processing.
• Interoperability: the solution must integrate via REST API with user relationship management systems (GRU), specialist software and public procurement platforms (AWS, Klekoon, e-Marchés publics...).
• Evidential value archiving: the signed document, accompanied by its metadata (qualified time-stamping, certificate chain, verification report), must be archived in a system compliant with NF Z 42-013 or ISO 14721 (OAIS).
• Management of delegations and authorisations: a municipality must be able to configure signature workflows reflecting its internal delegations (delegation from mayor to DGA, joint signature of two elected officials, etc.).

Phased implementation: the recommended method

DGFIP and the AMF (Association of Mayors of France) recommend a three-phase approach: (1) audit of existing situation and mapping of acts to be dematerialised, (2) pilot on a limited scope (e.g. common supplies procurement), (3) generalisation with agent training and communication with external partners.

The Certyneo ROI calculator can help you quantify the expected return on investment based on the volume of contracts handled annually by your territorial authority, taking into account the costs of printing, postage, physical storage and administrative management.

Finally, for public bodies already equipped with an existing solution and wishing to migrate to a more capable platform, the migration offer to Certyneo takes over your signed contracts and their audit trails free of charge; workflows in progress are recreated in Certyneo.

Legal framework applicable to electronic signature in territorial authorities

The electronic signature used by territorial authorities is part of a coherent regulatory stack that must be mastered to secure each dematerialised act.

Civil Code, Articles 1366 and 1367: Article 1366 provides that "electronic writing has the same evidential value as writing on paper medium, subject to the person from whom it emanates being able to be duly identified and it being established and preserved in conditions of a nature to guarantee its integrity." Article 1367, for its part, recognises the validity of electronic signature when it "consists of the use of a reliable identification process guaranteeing its link with the act to which it is attached", with a strengthened presumption of reliability when qualified eIDAS signature is used.

Regulation eIDAS No. 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council: This regulation, directly applicable in all member states, defines the three levels of electronic signature (simple, advanced, qualified), establishes the requirements applicable to qualified trust service providers and guarantees cross-border recognition of qualified signatures (Article 25). The eIDAS 2.0 revision (Regulation EU 2024/1183) strengthens these provisions and introduces the European digital identity portfolio (EUDIW).

GDPR Regulation No. 2016/679: The processing of personal data of signatories (identity, contact details, possible biometric data) is subject to the principles of minimisation, purpose and security of the GDPR. Territorial authorities must keep a register of processing and ensure that their service provider acts as a data processor with a DPA (Data Processing Agreement) compliant with Article 28.

NIS2 Directive (EU 2022/2555): Transposed into French law by Law No. 2023-703 of 1 August 2023 and its implementing decrees, the NIS2 directive imposes on public administrations — including territorial authorities of significant size — strengthened requirements in matters of cybersecurity, in particular the management of risks related to the digital supply chain. The signature service provider must be able to document its security measures.

ETSI standards EN 319 132 and EN 319 122: These standards define advanced electronic signature formats (XAdES, CAdES, PAdES) accepted in public procurement. The PAdES-B-LTA format (PDF Advanced Electronic Signature with Long Term Archival) is particularly recommended for contract documents to be retained over long periods.

Ordinance No. 2014-1329 and Decree No. 2020-1407: These texts govern remote deliberations and electronic signature of acts by deliberative bodies of territorial authorities.

Legal risks in case of non-compliance: An act signed with an unsuitable signature level or by a non-qualified service provider may be annulled by the administrative judge in the event of litigation. Prefectural legality review may also reject acts transmitted via non-compliant channels. It is therefore imperative that the Data Protection Officer (DPO) and the legal department of the territorial authority validate the deployment framework before any move to production.

Illustrative usage scenarios in local government bodies

Scenario 1 — A medium-sized municipality dematerialises its road maintenance public procurement

These scenarios are illustrative: they describe typical situations and do not report any measured results from a client. A municipality of around 25,000 inhabitants manages numerous public contracts every year, some of which are above the threshold for formalised competitive tendering. On paper, each contract requires printing several copies of the contractual file, a physical signature circuit involving the mayor, the deputy general director, and the public accountant (representing the DGFIP), followed by a registered mailing to the awardee and to the prefecture for legality review. This lengthens the time between contract award and notification.

With a qualified electronic signature solution integrated into its buyer profile, the municipality can shorten this timeframe. Printing, postage, and archival management costs are also reduced. Legality review, carried out via the @ctes portal with electronic signature, is also completed faster than with a paper-based submission. The extent of the gain is to be measured on your own scope, before and after a pilot.

Scenario 2 — A department dematerialises its subsidy agreements with associations

A departmental council awards more than 1,200 grants to local associations every year, each giving rise to a bilateral agreement. Paper-based management keeps a team of part-time staff occupied for several months a year, with signed agreements often not returned within the required timeframes, as associations are slow to send back signed documents.

With a white-label advanced electronic signature solution, the department can automate the electronic sending of agreements with automatic reminders. The share of agreements signed within deadlines is expected to increase, and staff time spent on follow-up decreases. Automatic archiving in a compliant digital vault also limits physical storage costs. The extent of the gain is to be measured on your own scope, before and after a pilot.

Scenario 3 — An inter-municipal body secures its community council deliberations

A metropolitan area grouping 18 municipalities holds on average 12 community councils per year, each producing between 20 and 50 deliberations. Physical signature of each deliberation by the president and vice-presidents delegated involved heavy logistics, with sometimes difficult travel for elected officials living in peripheral municipalities.

With a remote qualified signature workflow, each elected official can apply their signature from their smartphone or computer using their personal certificate: geographical constraints disappear and the time needed to finalise resolutions is shortened. Travel (mileage costs, staff time) is avoided. Full traceability of signatures and timestamps also simplifies responses to legal challenges. The extent of the gain is to be measured on your own scope, before and after a pilot.

Conclusion

Electronic signature has established itself as a structuring tool for the modernisation of territorial authorities. Whether public procurement, partnership agreements, deliberations or administrative ordinances, contract dematerialisation in town halls and municipalities offers measurable gains: reduction in processing times, direct savings in administrative costs, strengthened legal security of acts and improved relationships with partners and service providers. The regulatory framework — eIDAS, Civil Code, GDPR, NIS2 — provides a solid foundation for securing this transition, provided a qualified service provider is chosen and the signature level is calibrated to the risk of each act.

Certyneo supports territorial authorities in this transformation with an eIDAS-compliant platform, hosted in Europe, equipped with advanced delegation management and API integration with the main public information systems. Discover our pricing and offers dedicated to the public sector or contact our team for a personalised demonstration.