Thales has published a new white paper to inform the European public of the latest developments in the European Union’s eIDAS regulations. The original eIDAS guidelines were introduced in 2014, while the eIDAS 2 update will come into effect in September 2023.

This gives organizations a year and a half to adapt their technology to comply with the new law. In this regard, the Thales white paper places particular emphasis on digital wallets, since the new regulation stipulates that each EU country must be able to provide a digital wallet to all citizens who wish to use digital versions of key identity documents. This requirement is part of a broader drive for digital transformation in the EU, as the government wants to make it as easy as possible for citizens to access various online services.

In this spirit, the new rule aims to promote cross-border interoperability, since it ostensibly guarantees that digital IDs will work in any country in the Union. eIDAS includes additional language that stipulates that government agencies and private sector service providers such as banks and telecommunications companies must recognize digital IDs stored in official digital wallets as valid proof of identity in commercial interactions. For example, digital IDs could be used to access healthcare or to generate electronic signatures for digital documents.

Thales’s white paper provides further details on the eIDAS changes and the impact they will have on businesses and individuals in the EU. Administrators believe people will eventually use digital IDs to authorize millions of transactions every day, although the roll-out of digital ID programs has so far been uneven across member states.

The EU announced plans for its own digital wallet app last June. Juniper Research has since predicted that Western Europe will be one of the first regions to adopt the use of digital wallets on a commercial scale.

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April 7, 2022 – by Eric Weiss