EU Digital Wallets: Are You Ready to Reap the Benefits of Citizen ID?

A pan-EU digital identity will go live for 450 million people in 2026. Supporting a profusion of business and everyday needs, it opens a world of opportunities for organizations and governments across the European Union.

Can you imagine a world where you do not need physical documents or a dozen wet-ink signatures to open a bank account, cross a border, register a new SIM card, or rent a home? Where you may never need to prove your age or explain your medical history to a new doctor ever again?

This world will soon become a reality for millions of EU citizens. The EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet is a secure online platform that allows European citizens to store official documents, share specific attributes without revealing unnecessary personal data, and prove their identity anywhere in the EU. The wallet will make offering and accessing (digital) services quicker, safer, and easier in just a few clicks.

Right now, four large-scale pilot projects are winding to a close before the first member states adopt the new system. They have been exploring use cases for the wallet, as well as testing the tech and refining what the user experience will look like. 

The pilot phase will culminate in a thoroughly tested and reliable open-source code base for the wallet. By November 2026, all EU countries must offer at least one version of the wallet, based on this common toolbox. By 2030, 80% of EU citizens are expected to be using this new ID.

A closer look: What is the EU digital wallet?

The idea for an EU-wide self-sovereign identity (SSI) system has been around for many years. SSI is a “bring your own identity” system, where individuals have full control over their data and can prove who they are without involving a middleman.

In this framework, citizens no longer need to fill out long forms full of personal details or scan documents when accessing a service. Instead, they open an app on their phone, click a digital credential they have stored inside their digital wallet, and then share it securely with the service provider that needs to check it. That might be a public administration body, customs official, bank, hospital, employer, e-commerce site, or someone else.

Users can store a wide range of encrypted, digitized credentials in their EUDI Wallet. Besides the usual identity documents (driver’s license, ID card), they could post job titles, pay slips, rental history, university diplomas, flight tickets, and even loyalty points and records of services they have used to their wallet app.

The broad scope means the use cases are endless, from filing taxes, to claiming prescriptions, to renting a car.

Along with helping citizens, the EUDI Wallet can also make everyday business tasks much simpler. HR teams will be able to confirm a job candidate’s identity quickly, employees will be able to prove they represent their company, and thousands of hours could be saved by replacing the hassle of printing, signing, scanning, and mailing paper documents.

Greater privacy and ownership of data

It is natural for some people to feel cautious about storing important digital information in one place. That is exactly why the EUDI Wallet is built to earn users’ unshakable trust:

• User control: The EUDI Wallet follows the data-limitation principle. This means users share only the data necessary for a specific task: Nothing more and nothing less. For example, a user can share their driver’s license but not their home address, or they can just confirm they are over 18 without giving a birth date. Users decide what information to share and with whom, greatly reducing the risk of profiling, tracking, or tracing.
• Privacy and security: Rather than storing everyone’s sensitive data on large, vulnerable databases that have proven to be a magnet for hackers, the EUDI Wallet lets users store the information themselves, using advanced encryption methods. Sharing information with third parties is done via secure protocols that prevent the theft or export of private keys.
• Trust: To build a chain of trust, the EUDI Wallet binds the user’s verified identity directly to the app, ensuring that only the wallet holder’s documents are stored. Organizations and individuals requesting data (relying parties) are also required to confirm their trusted entity status and notify the member state where they operate. All relying parties must comply with the applicable data protection rules, including obtaining user consent to access their data and not storing or retaining it.

What you will notice is that sharing an attribute is actually the last thing that happens. Before you reach this point, important questions have already been answered: Is this person who they say they are? Does this credential come from a verified source? Is it a valid document that hasn’t been tampered with? Do I trust its issuer? All these steps are taken care of to guarantee the integrity and authenticity of data.

The final layer of trust comes from the wallet’s open-source components. The application software components will be fully open to scrutiny, although member states have some flexibility in choosing the specific technology base they want to use, such as PKI or Blockchain. 

Interoperability: A wallet without borders

While national electronic identification systems have been available in some European countries for many years—the Netherlands is a particular pioneer in digital identity—these legacy identification services only work in their home countries. The big ambition of the EUDI Wallet is to harmonize the use of wallets across the EU zone. Interoperability is the special sauce that allows citizens to move around and have their digital credentials recognized, regardless of where they are.

What makes it possible for the system to work across borders is the EU’s eIDAS regulation. First introduced in 2014 and updated to eIDAS 2.0 in 2024, the ‘Electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services’ regulation sets rules and standards for how electronic identification and trust services work in the European Union. It essentially creates a framework that ensures electronic IDs from one country are recognized and trusted in others.

This is a big deal. Today, a doctor from Belgium relocating to Spain would have to jump many hurdles to prove the validity of her medical qualifications. With the EUDI Wallet, she could apply for a new job and have her qualifications certified in seconds.

What is the opportunity?

Anything that greases the flow of information is good news for organizations. When you tally up the time and cost savings that come from reducing the time spent on manual ID checks, it is easy to see why organizations are enthusiastic. Not to mention the reassurance of knowing that a document is genuine and has come from who it claims, or that a signer is a legitimate representative of an organization with authority to sign documents.

Then there is the cross-border dimension. For businesses seeking access to new markets and larger audiences, the EUDI Wallet could be a game-changer.

The task now is to identify where this solution can integrate into your workflows. Fast, secure document verification and authentication can help customers access just about every type of enterprise and government service easily. For organizations, this represents an opportunity to improve the customer experience, and reap the rewards that flow from it—if you know how to make the most of it.

The clock is ticking to get ahead of the opportunities. The big questions decision-makers should address are:

• Are we ready for digital wallets?
• How can they benefit our organization?
• How do we consume information coming from a digital wallet?
• Which identities and attributes could help create value for our customers if they were digital?
• How will we manage certificates and meet compliance standards?
• What applications or services can we build on top of trusted identities?

To get the most value from this exercise, it is important to work with the right digital trust partner: One that operates like a gardener, not a spade. 

By this, we mean an identity partner that can help you grow and cultivate your entire digital trust environment, not just turn the soil on a single ID. A good partner will take into account your existing infrastructure, workflows, and customer touchpoints to help you identify where trusted identities can make a difference and bring all those use cases to life.

The eIDAS framework and reference architecture are complex, so work with a partner like AET Europe. We have been digging in this area since the beginning. So if there’s a way to accelerate your go-to-market strategy, we will work together with you to find it.

There is always a chicken-and-egg challenge in digital identity. Companies rightly need proof of the benefits before they invest in identity solutions. This time, though, the choice to adopt is already made. The EUDI Wallet will become a reality, so those who act first will have the advantage—and partnering with AET Europe will help you stay ahead.