Unlocking the Digital Future: The European Digital Identity Wallet Revolution

The European Commission welcomes the final agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on the regulation introducing the European Digital Identity Wallet (eID Wallet)

eID Wallet: what it is and how it works.

Thanks to eID Wallets, secure access to online services and full control over personal data are now possible. This agreement represents a significant step in the 2030 Digital Decade program, contributing to the digitalization of public services for citizens and businesses.

According to the European Commission, this is the first continental ID framework, promising a new and secure era for managing digital personal documents. European Digital Identity Wallets will allow every European citizen to access online public and private services, ensuring security and compliance with laws protecting personal data.

Věra Jourová, Vice President, expresses satisfaction that highly technical negotiations have ended positively, transforming the proposal into legislation. The EU's digital identity wallet will usher in a new era of the digital decade, serving as a convenient and secure model for managing personal digital documents for daily access to online public and private services. Europeans will have control over their personal data and can easily share it, if desired, from an app on their phone, she said.

Thierry Breton, Commissioner for the Internal Market, explains that the agreement will strengthen the EU's technological sovereignty and help confidently address current and future challenges related to digital transformation.

eID Wallet and the web giants.

The Digital Identity Wallet must also be adopted by large web platforms identified by the Digital Services Act, such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, or Alibaba, and generally integrated by all private service providers for user authentication. The complete list of Online Platforms and Search Engines that mus comply may be found here.

eID Wallets are envisioned as facilitators of the digital single market and its services, including the sale and purchase of various products, promoting (especially electronic) commerce, and creating new business and job opportunities.

Through them, every user can open bank and postal accounts, make payments, and activate personal documents in digital format, including a driver's license, medical prescriptions, or a travel ticket.

eID Wallet and personal data.

In terms of data treatment, individuals can choose how, what, and with whom to share, avoiding any misuse, tracking, or interception of their information and communications.

eID Wallet: investments and expectations.

By 2030, the Commission expects at least 80% of European citizens to access key public services through eID.

The EU Commission is already investing €46 million from the Digital Europe program in various large-scale pilot projects to test the digital identity wallet in a range of everyday use cases, including mobile driver's licenses, e-health, payments, educational qualifications, and professional certifications.

eID Wallet: next steps.

The pilot projects, launched on April 1, 2023, will contribute to improving the technical specifications of the wallet.

The agreement reached by co-legislators must now be formally approved by the European Parliament and the Council. Once formally adopted, the framework for a European digital identity will come into effect on the 20th day following publication in the Official Journal.

Member States must provide European digital identity wallets to their citizens 24 months after the adoption of implementing acts establishing technical specifications for the wallet itself and for certification. These implementing acts, which will be adopted 6 and 12 months after the regulation is adopted, will be based on the specifications developed within the EU's digital identity toolkit, thereby defining harmonized conditions for the implementation of wallets throughout the European Union.

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