The Spanish Presidency closes the agreement of the regulation to create a unique and secure European digital identity

After intensive work, the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union has successfully completed the negotiation of the European digital identity regulation, after reaching an agreement with the European Commission and the European Parliament that allows this important legislative dossier to be closed.

The First Vice-President and Acting Minister for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, chaired the fourth and final closing trialogue of this ambitious regulation on Wednesday in Brussels, without any opposition from the other Member States, the Commission or Parliament.

“With the adoption of the European Digital Identity Regulation we are taking a fundamental step so that citizens can have a unique and secure European digital identity. This is a key step for the European Union to be a leader in the digital field, protecting our rights and democratic values,” said Vice-President Nadia Calviño.

The trialogue was also attended by the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, and the co-legislators of this regulation, MEPs Cristian-Silviu Buşoi and Romana Jerković.

Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, known as the eIDAS regulation, is the current legal framework in Europe for electronic identification and trust services in electronic transactions. The European Commission proposed in September 2020 to update this regulation, (to be colloquially referred to as "eMIDAS 2").

During these two years, work has been done in the European Parliament, in the Council of the EU and in the European Commission to reach, after 19 technical meetings under the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, a final text agreement that will be binding on all the Member States of the European Union.

Secure digital identification across the EU

The eIDAS Regulation aims to ensure universal access for individuals and businesses to secure and reliable electronic identification and authentication.

To this end, it provides that Member States will be obliged to issue within 24 months of the entry into force of at least one European digital identity portfolio (European Digital Identity Wallet), which will be voluntary for citizens and businesses in the form of mobile applications.

These digital portfolios will allow citizens to digitally identify themselves, store and share a plethora of identifying data, credentials and identity attributes, such as circulation permits, academic qualifications, bank accounts or medical prescriptions. It will also allow the digital signature and control with whom and under what conditions that personal information is shared to third parties.

All this is common and harmonised throughout the European Union, which is a great step towards territorial cohesion and the single market, since these digital portfolios can also be used in the private sector.

Avoid unnecessarily sharing personal data

In addition, you will avoid using private identification methods or unnecessarily sharing personal data. User control will ensure that only information that needs to be shared is shared.

Among the various other agreements reached and established in the final text, with a harmonized approach to cybersecurity, are also the demand for high levels of trust and the gratuitousness of these digital portfolios, which will be developed under an open source model (open source) that allows for greater scrutiny and security of these applications.

It also establishes the extension of trust services to electronic ledgers and the management of remote electronic signatures and stamps, as well as the electronic issuance of identity attributes by qualified providers.

Intense negotiation process under the Spanish Presidency

The text was in the interinstitutional negotiation phase commonly known as trialogues, due to the participation in these discussions of three European Union institutions – Council of the EU, European Parliament and European Commission.

Thanks to the intense work carried out under the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, the fourth and last trialogue represents the final culmination of a great negotiating effort that has resulted in 19 technical meetings since Spain received this dossier from the previous Swedish Presidency. At the last technical meeting held on October 11, 2023, all the articles pending negotiation were finalized in a text agreed by all parties.

Following the consensus reached today, technical work will continue to complete the legal text in accordance with the interim agreement. Once finalised, the text will be submitted to the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States (Coreper) for approval.

The revised agreement should be formally adopted by Parliament and the Council before it can be published in the Official Journal of the EU and enter into force.

Other key digital dossiers for the Spanish Presidency

The Spanish Presidency continues to work to close other key dossiers in the digital field before the end of its mandate on 31 December.

Among all of them, the Artificial Intelligence Regulation stands out, so that the European Union is the first jurisdiction in the world with a legal regime of artificial intelligence, ensuring that this new technology responds to European fundamental rights. The work progresses in the trialogues held to date, with the aim of closing the negotiations before the end of the year.

Progress is also being made with the Cyber Resilience Regulation, to increase the cybersecurity of the products of hardware and of software. It is about protecting citizens, giving them guarantees of safety and quality of all those products that incorporate digital elements.

Another of the dossiers under negotiation is the Gigabit Infrastructure Regulation (GIA). It is about having high-speed infrastructures secure throughout Europe by 2030 to deploy all electronic communications networks and reduce deployment costs, while also giving legal certainty and transparency to economic operators. The aim of the Spanish Presidency is to obtain the mandate of the European Council during this six-month period.