EU’s digital wallet now being tested – “everyone will be using it in a few years”

Proving that you’re a signatory to an institution or that you’ve got a certain degree isn’t too difficult when you’re at home in your home country – but it’s more difficult if you’re in another EU country. But now the European Union is working on creating a framework for digital wallets that can verify all data across various member states.

The wallet handles all certificates and identifications like passports, driving licenses, vaccination certificates, various tickets or proofs of your age or that you are a signatory to an organization.

The law has not yet entered into force, but the hope is that it will be ready this year – perhaps already this spring, during Sweden’s presidency.

In parallel, work is underway to develop a technical reference framework for digital wallets of various countries to exchange data.

Test different flows

Now the concept of digital wallets will also be tested. The four different confederations work on how different streams operate and create pilots – which, among other things, looks at how they can exchange information about university educations and degrees or driver’s license information.

One of the four confederations is led by the Swedish Companies Registration Office and focuses on travel, companies and payments.

– David Maggard says that we are talking about systems, not just seeing from the individual’s point of view, but seeing how the system that provides information and verifies identities – often authority – is affected. A strategist and responsible for the project at the Swedish Companies Registration Office.

That consortium alone currently has 56 different actors, including some countries inside and outside the EU – such as Norway and Great Britain – but also, for example, card company Visa, security company Avast and Swedish Bank-ID.

– It’s a mix of public and private, and we’ve got everything from small startups to big American giants.

Lasts for two years

The project has a total funding of SEK 200 million and runs for two years. Trials should begin in May, but it’s important that the technical reference architecture course is in place first – in January, David Maggard believes.

In tests led by the Swedish Companies Registration Office, the first step – that the identity is protected – is assumed to have already been taken, and then they look at the second step. How to exchange information.

– In our consortium, for example, we test flows where I represent a company to another EU country. When I fly, I can ensure that all receipts are handled in a digital wallet, and when I arrive at the hotel, I don’t have to sign a lot of papers – the digital identity should be enough, and all the information should be there. I can go from hotel to travel agency.

Integrity is a focus

The idea of ​​being able to manage all of one’s digital identities in this way is not practical. It is about sharing only relevant data. You can prove your age to gain access to a service or enter premises without showing your full Social Security number.

– That kind of information is forgotten by a person within a short period of time. But when you identify yourself digitally, it is stored. Integrity is the focus of a proposal for a regulation put forward by the Commission, says David Maggard.

The EU’s legislative proposal requires all major platforms to accept digital wallets created by member states and ensure that they are interoperable with the framework on which they are based.

Affects electrical services

He believes that creating such ways to securely exchange information digitally will be broadly successful.

– For me, the greatness of this is that in a few years everyone will have a digital wallet and use it. It will affect e-services and how we exchange data – we don’t know what that means at the next stage. But that changes the game plan.

Sweden We have long used mobile bank ID very widely, but the dominant digital ID solution is driven by the banks and we do not have a national e-ID.

Working on National e-IT

But recently, a national e-ID has come up on the agenda and DigiC, along with the Agency for Digital Governance, the Police Agency and the Social Insurance Agency, are working to investigate what a state e-ID could look like. The job will be announced at the end of January.

This work is not directly connected to the digital wallet, but it still pays the work – at least today’s bank ID solution does not cover everyone, only those who are bank customers, and the idea is that everyone should have a digital wallet.

In addition, digital wallets have a higher level of security than bank ID, which is not at the highest level in the EU.

– Sweden has a special context, and some member states have other inputs, where they see the whole thing in a global context and want to make sure that it’s all based on common European solutions and standards, says David Maggard.

He is pleased that the Swedish Companies Registration Office now has such a big responsibility in the work going forward.

– It is sometimes said that the Swedish authorities are not very good at participating at the EU level – but here we are. Once the pilots are over in a couple of years, I think we’ll start seeing implementation where digital wallets come in.

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