The European Commission is expected to publish the technical specification for the European Digital Identity Wallet in the next two weeks, shaping the regulatory background ahead of its 2024 final delivery date.
The comments made by Robert Viola, Director General of the European Commission digital economy directorate, will reassure wallet users over some privacy and trust concerns while the incoming eID will be designed to enable citizens to have full autonomy over their data and who it is shared with.
Members of the European Commission and Parliament, who previously voted 55 to 8 on the proposed update of the digital identity framework, have both joined forces to ensure data protection provisions, cybersecurity and data ownership.
Driving interoperability between states over the technical considerations and privacy, the specification outlines a user-based architecture and “is very flexible”. With the delivery date nearing, only 1 in 14 EU states are said to have create one eID of digital identity while each state is responsible for building a wallet for its citizens.
The session on digital wallets was held during the Digital Assembly 2023 in Stolkholm following the best edition to date of Identity Week Europe 2023, which brought together key European stakeholders across identity where the EU wallet and eIDAS 2.0 was high on the agenda for discussion and assimilation.
Robert Viola said the infrastructure of the wallet will allow usage independently from the smartphone providers. Interestingly, Erik Slottner, Sweden’s Minister for Public Administration said their objective was to finish the supportive framework by 2027, after the wallet is implemented next year which remains “a priority for the Swedish Presidency”.
