EU Digital Identity Wallet technical specifications out in the next weeks

Preparations are ramping up for the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI) launch with the European Commission revealing that its technical specifications will be released in the coming weeks.

The announcement was made by European Commission’s Robert Viola during the Digital Assembly 2023 conference in Stockholm on 16 June.

“The first release of the wallet we have already published on the developer site Github,” says Viola. “In the coming weeks, we will publish the wallet architecture, the first release, so all developers can look what is inside.”

The Director General of DG CONNECT (Directorate General of Communication, Networks, Content and Technology) at the European Commission also promised that software architecture will be published “very soon.”

The conference panel on EUDI was attended by government officials from Sweden and Ukraine as well as representatives from companies such as Amadeus IT Group, Yubico and the Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband, the association of German savings banks.

The EUDI will allow each European citizen to access both public and private digital services through a mobile app while maintaining control over personal data and digital assets. The wallet is not only open source but also open to different service providers and new ways of doing business, says Viola.

In May, the Commission earmarked €46 million (roughly US$49 million) for four EUDI pilot programs, involving more than 250 private and public organizations across Europe.

EU member states and the Commission are now working on a common toolbox that includes an architecture and reference framework, common standards, specifications, guidelines and best practices. The first version of the Architecture Reference Framework (ARF), which provides specifications and standards for an interoperable EUDI Wallet, was published in February. Since the legislative process is still ongoing, the architecture is a moving target, according to the Commission.

However, a study by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) in 2022 highlighted major gaps in the standardization of the EUDI Wallet.

During GlobalPlatform’s eID Wallet seminar in Brussels in April, ENISA senior security expert Sławomir Górniak said that a potential cybersecurity certification process could involve the use of the EUCC (the Common Criteria-based European Cybersecurity Certification Scheme), the certification scheme created under the Cybersecurity Act (CSA). Requirements not covered by the EUCC could be covered by the ISO/IEC 17065 and the ISO/IEC 17065 framework.

During the April event, Thales CTO Benoît Jouffrey also suggested that the GlobalPlatform certification ecosystem can help ease the overall process of certifying EUDI wallets. The organization sets technical standards for smart cards, smartphones, wearables and other connected devices.

Article Topics

digital ID infrastructure  |  digital wallets  |  EU Digital Identity Wallet  |  Europe  |  GlobalPlatform  |  standards