EU Commission doubtful all member states will be able launch EUDI wallets this year

Europe is hurtling toward the age of digital wallets, but much is still unknown. “In early 2026, no EUDI Wallet has been deployed or certified, and the specification remains work in progress. Furthermore, regarding security, no standard or technical specification is available or foreseen to be available by the end of the year.”

So says the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), in a newly published draft version of the EUDI Wallet candidate scheme, which “looks into the certification of the cybersecurity of cloud services.”

Formally titled the European Cybersecurity Certification Scheme (EUCC) for European Digital Identity Wallets, the scheme will be developed in alignment with the European Cybersecurity Certification Framework, as defined in Regulation (EU) 2019/881 (Cybersecurity Act). The draft is intended as a basis for a public review, which aims to validate the principles and general organization of the proposed scheme.

One certification among many

A notice in the draft document specifies that, “although this is presented as a single scheme, it is important to note that the certification of an EUDI Wallet is not going to be monolithic. The most critical hardware and software components will be certified using the EUCC scheme, other software components will be certified using other schemes, and conformance testing may be performed by yet another laboratory.”

The scheme “may be used to certify a complete solution, combining wallet solution and electronic identification means, but it also offers the possibility to certify separately a wallet solution or the services of a PID provider supporting the wallet.” It “explicitly encourages composition with other certification schemes, including other European schemes, but also national and private schemes, at least those based on accreditation.” And, it “encourages the reuse of evidence from other conformity assessment schemes, and even more generally the reuse of any assurance information, such as an attestation delivered by public auditors, through the reuse of the dependency analysis introduced for the certification of cloud services.”

Launchpad event highlights importance of trust

With wallets on the horizon, the European Commission hosted its first EUDI Wallets Launchpad in late 2025, a multi-day testing event for the European Digital Identity Wallets’ initiative. A newly published report details key takeaways and conclusions from the event, which brought together

250 wallet providers, service providers, and administrations to collectively prepare for the EUDI Wallet rollout.

A testing track featured 16 countries (with EUDI Wallets from 11 Member States), comprising 19 organisations and 44 test objects; in total, 1260 tests were conducted. Results showed a spectrum in maturity and readiness across EU member states, with France, Germany and Austria showing high preparedness.

Breaking down the numbers, 671 test cases were executed, 570 peer-to-peer tests and 101 tests against the Reference Implementation – an open-source codebase demonstrating how the EUDI wallet ecosystem works in practice. Seventy-four percent of peer-to-peer tests were successful, while only 44 percent of tests against the Reference Implementation were successful.

“When viewed across all 27 Member States, this indicates that fewer than one quarter participated with EUDI Wallet-enabled applications,” says the report. “While this suggests that only a limited number of Member States are likely to meet the November 2026 EUDIW deadline, it also demonstrates that the Reference Implementation is effectively supporting early testing, experimentation, and learning, particularly for less mature implementations.”

While technical interoperability is progressing, “trust infrastructure onboarding remains a weak point” that “requires stronger operational focus in upcoming phases.”

“The event reinforced a key market reality: wallets are enabling technology, but services and attestations create value. Public and private relying parties are ready to engage, but require clarity on standards, predictable onboarding paths, and sufficient scale across member states.”

Indeed, “trust emerged as a unifying theme across testing, UX, and communications. It depends not only on security and compliance, but also on consistent user experience, recognisable signals of legitimacy, and communications that accurately reflect real user journeys. Any mismatch between promise and experience will undermine adoption.”

Moving forward, goals for the EUDI Wallet ecosystem include stronger regulatory alignment, improved design and technical specifications, and better community support.

Call for applications to form sub-group on European Business Wallet

The European Commission is calling for experts to apply to join the European Business Wallet (EBW) Technical Work Sub-Group. According to a release, the group of 20 members will help shape the technical features of the European Business Wallets, aiming to “support the development of a secure, interoperable, and scalable solution that empowers businesses to operate seamlessly across the EU’s digital single market.”

“Given the scope of the initiative and its direct relevance for economic operators and public administrations, and in line with the Commission’s simplification and competitiveness objectives, it is vital that the development and implementation of the new elements are informed by practical experience and designed to be future-proof and interoperable from the outset,” says the call.

Specific contributions will include assessment of secure and legally effective communication protocols and delivery channels; the design of core security features, including access control and authentication; and the development of common services supporting trust, discovery and interoperability.

Independent experts with relevant expertise in areas such as secure electronic messaging, identity and access management, encryption, interoperability frameworks and large-scale system architecture are invited to apply by May 21, 2026.

Article Topics

certification  |  digital ID  |  digital wallets  |  ENISA  |  EU Digital Identity Wallet  |  European Business Wallet