What is the European Digital Identity and what are its benefits?

Article content

Digitalization is currently one of the top priorities of the European Union. The European Parliament is actively involved in shaping new legislation in this area, aiming primarily to strengthen Europe’s capacities in digital technologies for both individuals and legal entities. As part of this effort, a digital identity (so-called eID) will be made available to companies and citizens, helping people access various public services and carry out online transactions across the entire European Union (EU).

Digital transformation

Digital transformation is the process of integrating digital technologies into corporate processes, public services, and the private sector. Various digital platforms, the Internet of Things, blockchain, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence are among the technologies that are already significantly influencing a wide range of economic sectors — from transportation and energy to telecommunications, financial services, healthcare, and many others.

The main purpose of digital technologies is to make citizens’ lives easier, simplify and optimize many business processes, reduce waste, improve companies’ competitive advantages, and deliver more customer-oriented services and products across EU member states.

Digital identity for all Europeans

The European Digital Identity (eID) will be available to all residents, citizens, and businesses in the EU who wish to identify themselves or provide confirmation of certain personal data. In practice, it can be used in both the public and private sectors for online and offline services across the entire EU. Each citizen will also be able to use a so-called personal digital wallet.

The European Digital Identity enables mutual cross-border recognition of national electronic communication systems. This allows citizens to identify and authenticate themselves online without needing to rely on commercial providers. The digital identity also gives citizens access to various online services of other EU member states using their national electronic ID card.

Benefits of the European digital identity

1. The digital identity includes the right of every person eligible for a national ID card to have a digital identity that is recognized throughout the entire EU.
2. Another advantage of the digital identity is the simple and secure way to manage a large amount of information you may want to share with services where sharing such data is necessary.
3. Through digital wallets — available in various mobile apps on smartphones and other digital devices — the following actions can be performed:
   • identify yourself online or offline,
   • store and exchange information provided by governments, such as name, surname, date of birth, or nationality,
   • store and exchange information provided by trusted private sources,
   • use this information as proof of residency rights or when applying for a job or studies in an EU member state.

Key principles

The Regulation on electronic identification, authentication, and trust services (commonly known by its English acronym eIDAS) from 2014 requires EU member states to establish national electronic identification systems that meet specific technical and security standards. These national systems are then interconnected, allowing citizens to use their national electronic ID cards to access online services in other EU countries as well.

The key principles within digital transformation and the development of digital identity are defined as follows:

• • Availability for every EU citizen, resident, or business in the European Union who wishes to use these services.
  • Widely applicable services, such as methods of identification or the ability to confirm certain personal attributes, for the purpose of accessing public and private services throughout the EU.
  • Full user control, enabling individuals to choose which aspects of their identity, data, and certificates they wish to share with third parties — along with the ability to monitor such sharing.

Practical use

Thanks to the EU digital identity wallets, citizens across the EU will be able to prove their identity when required to access specific online services. At the same time, the digital wallet will allow them to share various digital documents or easily prove specific attributes — such as their age — to a particular person without revealing their full identity or other personal data. Citizens will also have full control over which data they share and with whom.

The EU digital identity can be used in many practical scenarios, including the following situations:

• • For public services, such as requesting birth certificates, medical certificates, or reporting a change of residence,
  • when filing tax returns,
  • when applying to a university, either domestically or in another EU member state,
  • for storing medical prescriptions that can be used anywhere across Europe,
  • to verify one’s age,
  • to rent a vehicle using a digital driving license,
  • to check in at a hotel,
  • in other practical situations.

Final TIP:
The EU digital identity can also be used when applying for a bank loan. Normally, the loan application process requires the applicant to go through multiple steps, attend several in-person meetings, and submit or provide various documents and confirmations upon request.

With the EU digital identity, the applicant simply selects the required documents stored in their digital wallet and responds to the bank’s requests. Verifiable documents are then generated and securely sent to the relevant banking institution, which can smoothly continue processing the loan application.