Commission welcomes provisional political agreement on EU Digital Identity Wallet, Europe’s first trusted and secure digital identity app

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

The Commission welcomes the provisional political agreement of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on the key elements of the proposal for a legal framework for a European Digital Identity. The central innovative element of this framework is a personal digital wallet in the form of a secure and convenient mobile app. This will allow all EU citizens, residents and businesses to have trustworthy access to public and private online services all over Europe.

The EU Digital Identity Wallet will revolutionise digital identification by giving Europeans control over their personal data with the full convenience of mobile apps. They will be able to use online services and provide identity credentials in full control of their personal data.

The Commission is already investing €46 million from the Digital Europe Programme in four large-scale pilots, to test the EU Digital Identity Wallet in a range of everyday use-cases, including the Mobile Driving Licence, eHealth, payments, and education and professional qualifications. The pilots kicked off on 1 April 2023 and will contribute to enhancing the technical specifications of the wallet.

To ensure that Member States will be ready to provide the EU Digital Identity Wallet by the deadline set in the Regulation, the Commission is working with Member States on a Toolbox of technical aspects to build the prototype European Digital Identity Wallet app. The first version of the Toolbox was published on GitHub in February 2023 and will continue to be updated. The requirements and specifications of the Toolbox will be mandatory once the legislative process on the European Digital Identity framework has been finalised.

Next Steps

Further technical work is necessary to complete the legal text in line with the provisional political agreement. Afterwards, it will be subject to formal approval by the European Parliament and the Council.Once adopted, the European Digital Identity framework will enter into force on the 20^th day following its publication in the Official Journal.

Background

The 2030 Digital Decade policy programme sets out Europe’s ambition for the digital transformation by 2030. The EU Digital Identity Wallet supports the achievement of the Digital Decade targets. In particular, by 2030, all key public services should be available online, all citizens should be able to access their online health records and everyone should have access to secure privacy-enhancing eID.

The EU Digital Identity Wallet builds on the existing cross-border legal framework for trusted digital identities, the European electronic identification and trust services initiative (eIDAS Regulation). Adopted in 2014, it provides the basis for cross-border electronic identification, authentication and website certification within the EU.

The Commission’s proposal for an upgraded framework, on which co-legislators have reached a political agreement today, will improve the effectiveness and extend the benefits of secure and convenient digital identity to the private sector and for mobile use.