European Digital Identity Wallet Pilot implementation

The proposal aims to enable European citizens and business to share identity data in a secure and convenient way.

The prototype wallet, procured under the Digital Europe Programme:

• serves to trial and inform the specifications developed by Member States in close collaboration with the Commission, as the common EU Toolbox to implement the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet);
• will be tested in a number of Large Scale Pilots that cover different sectors, such as healthcare, financial services, education and transport;
• will be made available for re-use by Member States, Pilot Projects and other contributors as open source.

An initial version of the reference implementation is to be made available together with the first complete version of the common EU Toolbox to implement the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet) in September 2023.

Large Scale Pilots

Prior to its roll-out in Member States the European Digital Identity Wallet is piloted in four large scale projects, that launched on 1 April 2023. The objective of these projects is to test digital identity wallets in real-life scenarios spanning different sectors. Over 250 private companies and public authorities across 25 Member States and Norway, Iceland, and Ukraine will participate.

11 use cases are explored in particular:

1. Mobile Driving Licence: The storage and presentation of the mobile driving licence in both online and physical interactions such a driver providing their licence on the side of the road.
2. Accessing government services: Secure access to digital public services, such as applying for a passport or driver's licence, filing taxes, or accessing social security information.
3. SIM Registration: Proof of identity for the purpose of pre- and post-paid SIM card contracts (registration and activation), reducing fraud and costs for mobile network operators.
4. Signing contracts: Creating secure digital signatures for signing contracts online, eliminating the need for paper documents and physical signatures.
5. Claiming Prescriptions: Providing details of prescription to pharmacies and initiating the dispensation of medical products.
6. Opening a bank account: Verification of a user's identity when opening an online bank account, eliminating the need for the user to repeatedly provide their personal information
7. Payments: Verification of a user’s identity when initiating a payment online
8. Travelling: Presenting information from travel documents (e.g. the user's passport, visa, and other), allowing for quick and easy access when going through airport security and customs.
9. Education certification: Proof of possession for educational credentials, such as diplomas, degrees, and certificates making it easier to apply for jobs or further education
10. Accessing Social Security benefits: An EUDI Wallet can be used to securely access a user's social security information and benefits, such as retirement or disability benefits. It can also be used to facilitate freedom of movement by storing documents such as the European Health Insurance Card.
11. The development of the common EU toolbox: Developing a common EU toolbox to implement the European Digital Identity Wallet, including the technical architecture, standards, and best practice guidelines.

Each pilot will each make use of components of the reference implementation developed by the European Commission and contribute to further enhance its security, user-friendliness and interoperability.

The 4 pilot projects are implemented by the respective consortium bringing together public and private actors from different Member States. You can see the areas they explore in the table below. The key is found underneath.

Table 2: Tested Use Cases by Large Scale Pilot and Country of origin of participating entities
1. Access to Electronic Government services; 2. Opening a Bank Account; 3. Registration for Mobile SIM; 4. Mobile driving licence; 5. Remote Qualified Electronic Signature; 6. ePrescription; 7. Digital Travel Credentials  8. Organisational Digital Identities; 9. Payments (Account-to-Account, Card-Based, Possibly Token-based); 10. Educational credentials and professional qualifications; 11. Portable Document A1 (PDA1)& European Health Insurance Card (EHIC)

More Information

POTENTIAL

Across six uses-cases the Potential European Consortiums for Digital Identity aims to promote their development and deployment. It specifically focuses on opportunities for the new infrastructure among public and private stakeholders and interoperability and scalability of solutions. The goal is to enable MS to build the necessary expertise and infrastructure, taking into account results of other EU funded projects and leveraging synergies.

NOBID

This consortium, originating from set of Nordic and Baltic countries who, as well a Italy and Germany, involves several banks and will pilot the use of the EUDI wallet for the authorisation of payments for products and services by the wallet user/holder. It aims to address the issuance of wallets, the provision of payment means by financial institutions, and the acceptance of and payment in a retail context.

DC4EU

The Digital Credential for Europe (DC4EU) Consortium will pilot the use of the EUDI Wallet in both the educational sector (educational credentials and professional qualifications) and the Social Security domain (PDA1 and EHIC). The pilot will align with ESSPASS and the European Learning Model. This Large Scale Pilot is unique its use of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure in the context of the EUDI Wallet.

EUWC

The EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium (EUWC) will use the EUDI Wallet to store and present Digital Travel Credentials enabling support free cross-border movement Europe. It will also focus on the development of business digital identity wallets that allow a citizen to effectively identify themselves anywhere in Europe as legitimate representatives of an organisation. Lastly it will employ the EUDI wallet to store payment credentials and authorise account-to-account based transactions, as well as card-based and possibly token based transactions.