Europeans to Have Digital ID Wallets by 2026

European digital identity wallets should be available to all Europeans by 2026, European Commission officials said at a Thursday virtual technical briefing. Following the European Parliament's and EU Council's provisional agreement on the regulation, people will have access to secure, privacy-enhancing identities as part of the EU digital agenda, officials said. Some lawmakers, however, warned the wallets would give governments a blank check to monitor citizens, a charge the EC denies. The wallets will be free for all EU citizens, use will be voluntary, and they will be accepted throughout the EU, officials said. They will be security- and privacy-oriented, allowing people to control and protect their identification, personal data and digital assets, and subject to the EU general data protection regulation. Individuals will be able to use the wallets for public and private services, store and present attestations such as driver's licenses, and sign and seal documents electronically. The applications will be governed by one set of standards and will be interoperable across borders and services. The regulation is expected to be adopted by early next year and to become available in Q3-4 of 2026. The EC is working with several countries with the goal of offering the wallet sooner, officials said. While governments today are free to do what they want about tracking citizens, the wallet will bar such activities, the EC stressed. Nevertheless, German European Parliament Member Patrick Breyer, of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance and the Pirate Party, emailed that the measure is a "blank cheque for surveillance of citizens online" that undermines browser security: "Entrusting our digital lives to the government instead of Facebook and Google is jumping out of the frying pan into the fire."