In future, EU citizens will be able to use the “European Digital Identity Wallet” (ID Wallet) for digital administrative and banking transactions, but also for visits to the doctor, age verification and Internet shopping. The eIDAS 2.0 Regulation, which was negotiated in the EU’s trilogue last week and has now reached a preliminary political agreement on the core elements of a new framework for a European digital identity, is intended to pave the way for this. eco – Association of the Internet Industry supports the European initiative for an ID Wallet in principle; a reliable and secure ecosystem of digital identities lays the foundation for the realisation of the Single Market and a multitude of digital business models. At the same time, the association addresses important aspects that should be taken into account to ensure a successful conclusion of the reform.
Prof. Norbert Pohlmann, eco Board member, comments:
“The EU must encourage Member States to offer digital identity solutions such as ID wallets in an attractive and convincing way for users to actually use them. For competition to be successful with the best possible solutions and for wallets to be successfully enforced, the EU should, in our view, advocate that several certified wallets can coexist on the market; a purely state-run solution should definitely be avoided. The requirements for EU certification must be uniform, realistic, practical and GDPR-compliant. On the other hand, a blanket, undifferentiated obligation to accept wallets by private service providers only unnecessarily confronts companies in the Internet industry with legal uncertainties and high financial expenses.”
After the European Parliament approves the eIDAS Regulation amendment, it will be implemented in the individual EU Member States before the end of 2023. The first EUid wallets are to be introduced in 2024. By 2030, every Member State should make the EUid wallet available. The EU’s declared goal is that 80 percent of all citizens will already be using the EUid wallet by 2030.
