Call for European Digital Identity Wallet Pilots
In its June 2021 edition, ID & Secure Document News™ reported that the European Commission was promoting its proposal for a regulation that would amend the electronic identification, authentication and trust services (eIDAS) regulation and establish a framework for a European Digital Identity 1. The proposal came after a consultation that collected views from stakeholders on planned revisions to the eIDAS regulation, which included extending it to the private sector (see IDN August 2020).
Almost a year later, the EU confirmed it was working on a new digital wallet, secured by biometrics, that would allow EU citizens to verify their ID, access public and private services across the bloc, and store digital documents.
And now, the European Commission has announced the impending launch of at least four large-scale pilots to test the deployment of the European Digital Identity Wallet 2. The pilots will deploy the European Digital Identity Wallet (DIW) in national eID ecosystems operated by member states.
According to the tender description, the objective of the topic is to develop, implement and scale up the European Digital Identity framework, based on the revised eIDAS regulatory framework. The broader objective of European Digital Identity is to improve citizen’s access to highly trusted and secure electronic identity means and trust services such as digital signatures, improve citizens’ opportunities to use them and improve their ability to control how they share their personal identity data.
The topic aims to develop and pilot tools supporting the implementation of the new European electronic identity for all relevant stakeholders. It also intends to develop and deploy use-cases, including innovative solutions, for the new EU-eID ecosystem, leveraging and using synergies with decentralised technologies, and will support the implementation of the once-only principle and the sharing of data between public administrations in the EU under the control of the user.
Further instructions from the tender state that one of the scopes of the project is to pilot implementations of the European Digital Identity Wallet and its ecosystem and piloting of use cases in priority areas as relevant for the once-only principle under the Single Digital Gateway regulation, as well as validating technical references, standards, components and solutions. Use-cases may build on decentralised technologies such as the exchange of credentials leveraging electronic ledgers.
The official launch of the digital ID wallet is scheduled to take place in September 2022. Ahead of its release, the Commission is now calling on member states to work on a toolbox that would address the technical aspects of the future system.
The EC call states that proposals for the pilots are due by 17 May 2022.
1 - https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/trusted-and-secure-european-e-id-regulation
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