On 26 March, the Council of the EU adopted the trilogue agreement on the framework on the European Digital Identity. The revised regulation constitutes a clear paradigm shift for digital identity in Europe. It aims to ensure that people and businesses across Europe have universal access to secure and trustworthy electronic identification and authentication.
Under the new law, member states will offer citizens and businesses digital wallets that will be able to link their national digital identities with proof of other personal attributes (e.g., bank account).
The main elements of the revised law can be summarized as follows:
- by 2026, each member state must make a digital identity wallet (EDIWs) available and accept digital identity wallets from other member states according to the revised regulation
- sufficient safeguards have been included to avoid discrimination against anyone choosing not to use the wallet, which will always remain voluntary
- the wallet’s business model: issuance, use and revocation will be free of charge for all natural persons
- the validation of electronic attestation of attributes: member states are required to provide free-of-charge validation mechanisms only to verify the authenticity and validity of the wallet and of the relying parties’ identity
- the code for the wallets: the application software components will be open source, but member states are granted leeway so that, for justified reasons, specific components other than those installed on user devices need not be disclosed
- consistency has been ensured between the wallet as a form of eID and the scheme under which it is issued.
Finally, the revised law clarifies the scope of the qualified website authentication certificates (QWACs), which ensures that users can verify who is behind a website, while preserving the current well-established industry security rules and standards.
Regarding the next steps, the European digital identity wallet is expected to be released at national level in 2026.
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