EUDI Wallet: there won't be "one" European wallet, but 27 (and what that means)

The EU is working on a common digital identity, the EUDI Wallet. But it's worth reading the fine print: it won't be a single wallet, but at least one per country, under a common framework with many details defined nationally. For a business that verifies identity, that changes the picture quite a bit.

What the EUDI Wallet is

The EUDI Wallet (European Digital Identity Wallet) is the identity app that each Member State must make available to its citizens under the eIDAS 2 regulation. In it, a person stores their identity and verifiable attributes (name, age, etc.) and shares them selectively with whoever they want, without handing over more data than necessary.

It's not one wallet: it's (at least) 27

Here's the key point that's often overlooked: eIDAS 2 does not create a single European wallet. It requires each Member State to offer at least one. There will therefore be 27 wallets or more, built on a common framework (the toolbox / Architecture Reference Framework) but with many aspects defined at national level: how it's issued, what credentials it carries, how it integrates, which providers are involved. The European framework defines the "what"; much of the "how" is decided country by country.

Why that matters for your business

If you operate with customers across several countries — or want to — integrating with one wallet won't solve the rest. Accepting European identity will mean, in practice, connecting to multiple wallets, each with its own technical and governance particularities. That complexity is precisely where intermediaries that simplify the integrations will be needed: a single connection to many wallets, instead of integrating 27 times.

In particular, private entities subject to strong authentication for online identification — including banking and financial services, with the exceptions provided for micro and small businesses — will have to accept European wallets compliant with the Regulation when a user voluntarily requests to identify with them. This will bring a significant interoperability burden for many businesses and sectors.

What about the timeline?

On paper, eIDAS 2 sets milestones: states must certify wallets and, later on, financial providers will have to accept them. In practice, the rollout will be gradual and uneven, and the real experience will depend on each national administration. It's reasonable to treat it as a horizon to watch — not something to solve tomorrow — while continuing to rely on methods that already work.

How YOiD approaches this

We're following the ecosystem closely so that, once the wallets are operational, we can act as the intermediary connecting your business to the various European wallets — without you having to integrate one by one. And today, you can already verify identity reliably by reading the ID card's chip via NFC.

Sources: eIDAS 2 and EUDI Wallet regulation (European Commission); ENISA "Remote ID Proofing — Good Practices" report (2024). Informational content; timelines may be adjusted by implementing regulation.