EU updates plan for rollout of digital wallets, mDLs

The EU has updated its plans to roll out digital identities and wallets to store and share them from under its Digital Europe Programme. European Commission published amendments to the Digital Europe (DIGITAL) Work Programme 2025-2027, in the form of a 2016-page annex.

Digital ID is prominent in the plan. It dedicates many pages to EU Digital Identity Wallets, which it reiterates must be ready by the end of 2026, as well as the European Trust Infrastructure. These will lead to a European Wallet for Business, though the technical and regulatory details are still being worked out.

Mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs), for which a format was provisionally agreed to earlier this year.

The amended plan also includes more funding for Digital Innovation Hubs, action against disinformation and an investment platform for affordable housing development.

Millions in procurements and grants

The document specifies funding of 129.6 million euros (roughly US$151.2 million) for the EUDI Wallet and European Trust Infrastructure and other services related to public service delivery, plus another €77 million ($89.8 million) for interoperability and digital government. The EC has also earmarked €67.6 million ($78.9 million) for “Safer Internet actions,” which includes the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) strategy, which along with the Digital Services Act underpins the EU’s age verification plans.

The EC notes that 4 large-scale pilots involving 360 entities from the public and private sectors have been working on 11 use cases for EUDI Wallets.

“Over the period 2025-2027, the priority is to complete the transition from the current digital service infrastructure to the new European Digital Identity Framework,” the paper says. “This includes activities such as implementing the EU Digital Identity Wallet architecture and its European Trust Infrastructure, and the promotion of its adoption by all the Member States as well as in new domains, with a focus on business applications. This will help implement the Digital Decade goal of providing 100% of European citizens with access to digital identification.”

Plans over the next three years include procurement of “accelerators, reuseable templates, specific guidance, trainings, and other supporting material” to help countries get ready for national certification of their digital wallets, worth €44.35 million ($51.7 million). There will also be €10 million ($11.7 million) in grants available for EUDI Wallet development and certification, and €5 million ($5.8 million) in grants to support the rollout of EU mDLs.

Austria has already issued more than 800,000 mDLs, but is well ahead of most EU countries in that regard.

Article Topics

Digital Europe Programme  |  digital ID infrastructure  |  digital wallets  |  EU  |  EU Digital Identity Wallet  |  mDL (mobile driver's license)  |  procurement  |  trust framework