Debate: European Digital Identity framework
Date: WEDNESDAY, 28 FEBRUARY 2024
Speaker: Romana Jerković
Country: Greece
Language: EN

But our increased presence online raises multiple security challenges: identity theft, cyber-attacks and monetisation of personal data. It is our duty to protect citizens and empower them by giving them full control over the use and sharing of their personal data. Under the new law, the biggest innovation is the European Digital Identity Wallet. This virtual and personal digital wallet, in the form of a mobile application, will allow citizens to identify themselves to safely store, manage and share personal data and documents in digital form across the EU. These include a driving licence, medical prescriptions, passports or university diplomas. While many large tech companies today are offering their own digital wallets, the truth is that too often our personal data is used to track our online activity and is sold to marketing companies that use that data to target us with aggressive advertising. We spend a lot of time debating about privacy and security. We insisted on including in the regulation two important principles. The first is cybersecurity by design, meaning that the wallet should be designed with the goal of preventing a cybersecurity breach, rather than repairing the problem once it occurs. The second is privacy by design, which does not allow the issuer of the wallet to track user behaviour and to observe transactions taking place within the wallet. This concept will enforce data minimisation and help address the issue of excessive mining of personal data by big platforms. The ambition of Parliament, and myself as rapporteur, was to give an alternative to all Europeans and to challenge the status quo. We wanted the digital wallet to be a practical tool that both European citizens and businesses will be able to use on a regular basis to solve their most practical day-to-day situations. And I think we achieved that objective. Citizens will be able to prove their identity in a secure and privacy-friendly way, and share and electronically sign personal documents from their digital wallets with the click of a button on their mobile phone. Europeans will be able to access both public and private online services across the EU. Examples of these could be applying for a loan, submitting tax declarations, enrolling for a university, renting an apartment, online voting in elections or registering a newly born child. It is important to emphasise that the holding of the wallet will be entirely a voluntary choice of the citizens. Moreover, this regulation has enormous potential to improve the quality, access and transparency of public services through digitalisation. This is crucial because not all Europeans have access to modern and efficient public services, such as Estonia or Denmark. We need to change this. Finally, we also need to address the lack of interoperability. Today, only a small fraction of online public services can be accessed cross border. We need to overcome these virtual barriers across Europe by enabling access to interoperable public, private and cross-border digital services. Thanks to the new regulation and harmonised standards, citizens will finally be able to use their nationally issued digital IDs seamlessly in all Member States. And let’s face it, our societal interests, such as the right to privacy, lost out in the favour of big commercial interests. Now it’s time for us to mobilise and to make technology adapt to people, instead of the reverse.