Members of European Parliament have given their “final green light” to the legislative foundation for the European Union’s planned Digital Identity Wallet. The regulation passed with 335 votes in favor, 190 opposed, and 31 abstentions.
The digital wallet – commonly called the “EU Digital Identity” (EUDI) wallet – will be made available on a voluntary basis, according to the regulation. It will offer European Union residents a means of identifying and authenticating themselves online, and without having to rely on commercial vendors.
The EUDI will also enable Europeans to share “qualified electronic signatures” that will have the same legal status as ink-and-paper signatures, a development that could offer significant productivity gains across the bloc. The same goes for language providing for wallet-to-wallet transactions, which a European Parliament statement characterized as a means “to improve the fluidity of digital exchanges.”
Through a planned “privacy dashboard”, EUDI users will be offered “full control of their data” and will have the option to request its deletion. The regulation also includes protection for non-users of the digital wallet, via language that would ban discrimination against people who opt out of using it.
The vote to approve the regulation establishing the European Union’s digital wallet comes roughly a year after the EU’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee approved an amended framework laying out the above functionalities and protections. Multiple large-scale pilot projects have got underway in an effort to realize various aspects of the EUDI, with major European tech companies involved.
The latter include biometrics specialists like iProov and IDEMIA, though a general potential role for biometric identity verification or authentication in the EUDI has yet to be hammered out.
According to the European Parliament, the legislation is a “direct response” to proposals that emerged from the Conference on the Future of Europe, a series of debates and discussions held between May of 2021 and May of 2022. The Conference was jointly organized by the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the Council of the European Union.
The legislation establishing the framework for the EUDI will now go to the EU Council of Ministers, whose expected endorsement will formally enshrine it as law.
Source: European Parliament
–
March 4, 2024 – by Alex Perala
Follow Us