Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) exchanged views on Friday 14 October on the degree of flexibility they would be prepared to offer regarding a high level of assurance for the identification of users of the future European digital identity wallet (see EUROPE 13030/2). This point was raised by the Czech Presidency of the EU Council in a document dated 7 October.
In detail, the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU was primarily seeking to gauge the direction of Member States when a high level of assurance - that the person claiming a particular identity is the person to whom that identity has been attributed - would imply the establishment of a more substantial infrastructure for the collection, storage and disclosure of digital identity data.
Thus, a European e-wallet with a ‘high’ level of trust could be used to identify and access all online services, including those requiring a ‘high’, ‘substantial’ or ‘low’ level of trust. Wallet users would be able to access any private or public sector service anywhere in the EU. This would ensure “equal conditions of access for all citizens” and “a level playing field for the industry”, the paper says. But it would also mean much more harmonisation work within the EU.
Conversely, although technically simpler, a wallet with a ‘substantial’ level of trust would not allow citizens to identify themselves and access services requiring a higher level of assurance.
“This option would not result in full harmonisation. A European Digital Identity Wallet at level ‘substantial’ would not provide equal access to all digital services in the single market nor many additional benefits over existing wallets provided by companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft, beyond providing access to e-services across the public sector, which is not possible with any existing private wallets”, the Czech Presidency concludes.
See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/3m9 (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)