Kalev Pihl: The European digital identity pocket would mean the cessation of a 21-year success story in Estonia

17.06.2022

Estonian business newspaper Äripäev published an opinion article by Kalev Pihl, CEO of SK ID Solutions, on the planned European digital identity pocket and its possible effects on Estonia.

Last June, the European Commission proposed a European Digital Identity Framework, which would allow EU citizens to prove their identity and share electronic documents with various parties, such as financial institutions or entertainment portals, at the touch of a button across the EU.

The European Digital Identity Wallet or EUDIW plays a key role in this framework. For EUDIW to function as the Commission wishes, a number of preconditions must be met which, as they stand, raise questions of principle.

According to the argumentation of the article by Mr. Pihl, the problem of cross-border identification cannot be solved with mandatory technology, but with the introduction of uniform rules for managing identities in the European Union. This requires political will, not another engineering solution, which will probably take many years and hundreds of millions of European taxpayers’ money.

Read the full article in Estonian on Äripäev website.

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