MEPs approve draft legislative framework for European Digital Identity Wallet

Croatian MEP Romana Jerković  speaking in the European Union Parliament
MEP ROMANA JERKOVIC: “The digital wallet will become a reliable, all-in-one identity gateway”

The European Union’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee has approved a proposed update to the European Digital Identity Framework that will enable the issuance and usage of the EU’s European Digital Identity Wallet and enable EU citizens to store digital identity credentials on their smartphone.

Fifty-five of the 65 Members of the European Parliament sitting on the committee voted to back the proposed update, but they also proposed a number of amendments to the draft legislation covering areas including privacy, cybersecurity and accountability.

The MEPs also proposed amendments that would make the wallet a tool for reading and verifying electronic documents, allow peer-to-peer interactions and ensure that EU citizens who choose not to adopt the wallet are not treated differently to those that do.

“With the European Digital Identity Framework, we want the EU to become the first global region with a governance framework for trusted digital identities,” committee member and Croatian MEP Romana Jerković says.

“The digital wallet will become a reliable, all-in-one identity gateway that puts citizens in full control of their own data and gives them the freedom to decide exactly what information to share, with whom, and when.

“From social, financial, medical and professional data, to contacts and much more, it will make it possible to store personal credentials within a single digital ID.

 “Digital identity is no longer just a nice-to-have feature, but a new driver of civic engagement and social empowerment and a tool for an inclusive digital Europe.”

The European Council approved a revised proposal for the legislative framework for the issuance and usage of the European Digital Identity Wallet in December 2022.

The EU confirmed plans for the European Digital Identity Wallet in June 2021 and announced large-scale pilots across multiple use cases in December 2022.

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