With a large majority, the EU Parliament marked out its course for the planned regulation for a European digital identity (EUid) based on digital wallets (e-wallets) in the plenary session on Thursday. They voted against the obligation demanded by the EU Commission to design the planned electronic proof of identity (eID) as a lifelong personal identification number. Instead, each member state should be able to continue to opt for identifiers that change with individual providers.
Previously, it was particularly controversial that the personal wallet should be associated with a lifetime unique identifier. Critics argued against the project that information from many areas of life could be brought together and citizens could become transparent. By 418 votes to 103 with 24 abstentions the people’s representatives also gave the lead industry committee the mandateto enter into a final compromise on the basis of the agreed position in negotiations with the EU Council of Ministers and the Commission. Member states want to keep “the concept of a unique and persistent identifier” for online wallets, so talks are unlikely to be easy.
E-wallet for everyone
The pending reform of the eIDAS regulation is about the EU countries having to make an e-wallet available to all citizens and companies in the future. In the digital wallet, users should be able to save their national eID on a smartphone, for example, and link it to proof of other personal attributes such as a driver’s license, diplomas, birth or marriage certificates, payment details and medical prescriptions. Through the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the MPs in the plenum enforced that the content should generally only be saved on the user’s device. However, the user can also opt for an external cloud copy.
With the adopted amendments, Parliament also wants to ensure the right to anonymity on the Internet. Accordingly, providers should provide digital services without electronic identification or authentication if possible. There should be no compulsion to use the EUid; alternative means of identification or authentication remain possible. In line with the recommendation of the Industry Committee, MEPs are also promoting an openly accessible source code for the EUid wallet, which should result in an open source solution. Parliament’s position also contains detailed provisions on how citizens should be able to request, obtain, store and combine personal identification data and electronic certificates, which are necessary for online and offline authentication.
Important tool for digitization
“Although the eID can be an important tool for modernizing and digitizing Europe, the original proposal by the European Commission was problematic and would have unnecessarily restricted users’ self-determination over their personal data,” explained MEP Patrick Breyer (Pirate Party). It will now be important to continue “the fight for strong data protection” and anonymous services in the so-called trilogue negotiations. E-mail providers previously complained that a “state wallet” would come that would leave out mass use cases.
(mki)
