eIDAS 2: the countdown to a single European Digital ID Wallet has begun

Catching up with a digital world

We need to start with a quick history lesson. In 2014, the original eIDAS Regulation was introduced.

In an increasingly digital world, the EU Commission wanted to ensure that citizens could access electronic services smoothly, securely and efficiently, regardless of the European country they were in.

With the advent of eIDAS, the EU became the first global region with a legal framework for trusted digital transactions. In the years since, consistent standards of authentication have been established and much infrastructure built. 
 

So what is significant about eIDAS 2?

With eIDAS 2, the Commission intends to fully realise its vision of a universal, cross-border e-ID. 

In the words of Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, the goal is a : 

Building on the progress made by the original eIDAS, with eIDAS 2 the Commission is targeting improvement in four key areas:

• The coverage of e-ID schemes
• The acceptance of these schemes by member states
• The use of cross-border authentication
• The user experience of e-ID schemes and services 
   

Introducing the benefits of a Digital ID wallet

Before we explore the benefits of the new EDIW, let’s define what it is - and what it isn’t. 

Many of us already use an OEM wallet, such as those operated by Apple, Samsung and Google, to store digital payment cards on our mobile phone. As the name suggests, the EDIW will perform a similar role for a variety of different schemes including not only ID, but credentials such as driving licences, health records and digital travel documents. 

Significantly, the EDIW is not likely to replace the ID documents (digital and physical) that EU citizens currently use but rather provide a convenient digital version of them. 

At the same time, it is far more than a convenient location on the handset for digital ID, attestations and entitlements. 

Why’s that? 

The EDIW will be highly secure.

It will allow us to share only the personal attributes and data that we need and want to share with third parties.

It will allow us to identify, authenticate and prove our entitlements. In the years ahead, it will facilitate an ever-growing range of services and use cases.

Different member countries will have the freedom to pursue their own designs and functionality.

But every wallet will share some common features and be interoperable right across the EU. 

Specifically, the EDIW will:

• Be fully compliant with existing EU legal frameworks such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and Cyber Security Act. 
• Feature strong cryptography, offer the highest level of assurance, and meet specific requirements for preventing and managing security breaches.
• Enable selective disclosure of attributes (such as age). The user only needs to share the necessary information for a particular transaction. For example, if you use the wallet to prove your age, you do not need to share other personal details such as date of birth, name or address. 
• Support a vast range of functions and use cases. The details are still being defined at the time of writing, but these are almost certain to include online identification and signatures. 

But there’s more.

It is not just citizens who stand to benefit from the EDIW. The pandemic has demonstrated the need for governments to digitalise their services even more clearly. In doing so, they can simultaneously improve convenience, security and efficiency. 

The same applies to private enterprises. A secure trusted, and EU-wide means of digital identification and authentication opens the door to a new era in seamless access to services. Enterprises will be able to enhance the user experience while reducing bureaucracy and overheads.