As they write here the EU are investing €46 million from the Digital Europe Programme into piloting and enhancing the European digital identity (EUDI) wallet, for travel, health, banking, education and more.
This investment is supporting 4 pan-European pilot projects that will develop and test the usage of the EUDI wallet for individuals and businesses around a diverse range of everyday use-cases. These use-cases cover both public and private services with national and cross-border interactions.
The EUDI wallet will revolutionise how citizens and businesses can digitally identify themselves when accessing public and private services throughout Europe, using their smartphone in a secure and convenient manner.
It will allow citizens to control their personal data stored within the wallet. The wallet will also be equipped with mechanisms to minimise the data shared for accessing services.
The EUDI wallet will make easier for EU citizens to travel and move to a new country. It will include digital travel credentials, and will simplify the processes of opening a bank account, registering for a SIM card, proving educational and professional qualifications, and claiming social benefits through the European Health Insurance Card.
Pilot Projects
The 4 pilot projects involve more than 250 private and public organisations across almost every Member State, as well as Norway, Iceland, and Ukraine, and will run for at least 2 years. They represent a combined investment of over €90 million in the EU digital identity ecosystem, co-financed by the Commission at 50%.
They will work on 11 priority use cases to improve citizens’ access to highly trusted and secure electronic identity means. The pilot projects will test the whole eco-system, from issuing the wallet to the user, to incorporating personal identity information, adding additional documents, and presenting this information to service providers.
- POTENTIAL – Pilots for European Digital Identity Wallet Consortium. The project will apply the EUDI wallet to 6 use-cases: Access to government services, Opening of a bank account, Registration for a SIM card, Mobile driving licence, eSignatures and ePrescriptions.
- EWC – EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium. The project will test 3 use-cases: The storage and display of digital travel credentials, the organisation of digital wallets and the organisation of payments.
- NOBID – Nordic-Baltic eID Wallet Consortium. The project will focus on a single use-case: the use of the EUDI wallet for the authorisation of payments for products and services by the wallet user. It will address the issuance of wallets, the provision of payment means by financial institutions, and the acceptance of payment in a retail context.
- DC4EU – Digital Credentials for Europe Consortium. The project will test the use of the EUDI wallet in the educational sector and the social security domain. The pilot project will align with the European Social Security Pass and the European Learning Model. It will use the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) in the context of the EUDI wallet.
