The new technological and geopolitical context has recently led to the approval of the eIDAS 2.0 regulation, which came into force in May 2024. The new regulation, which essentially regulates electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market, comes 10 years after the first eIDAS regulation, following Europe’s path towards a single market for electronic services. Italy has played a leading role in Europe in this sector and is currently one of the countries with the highest usage rates of digital identities (Spid), qualified electronic signatures (over 6 billion yearly transactions), and other services such as registered email and electronic invoice.
With the new eIDAS regulation 2.0, in effect since May 2024, a further digital revolution could unfold, driven by the implementation plans that will come to light in about three years. The main objective, currently in the early stages of implementation, is for 80% of the population to adopt the regulation by 2030, with a new commitment to maintaining a layer of trust in the internal market, while at the same time trying to counteract the dominance of external technology. This requires flexibility in the operational systems and services used, both in the financial and manufacturing sectors. In essence, the new regulation provides Italy with significant opportunities: the European Identity Wallet, which guarantees interoperability, so that no digital identities are attributed or authenticated without trust and convenience.
Moreover, through the pilot implementations of the regulation, some significant challenges will be addressed: the security front in terms of wide dissemination, sustainability in the current market, and the application of the necessary qualitative standards.
The practical outcome translates into finding ways for national identities to coexist, like Italians are accustomed to identifying with Spid or Cie (the electronic ID card), but at the European level, there are 35 identification schemes used across 27 different countries. The challenge of interoperability with the launch of wallet-based applications authorized at the European level represents an important opportunity for Italy because it provides a framework for defining the technological guidelines and regulatory standards used. Examples include fiscal code (taxpayer ID) and identity based on biometric or graphic data that each national system imposes (in total independence from foreign systems) or the trust model to be implemented to ensure that all European countries, with registries and systems already distributed throughout their administrations, can effectively guarantee accredited attributes (e.g., certificates for participants verified by the digital market in real-time).
The management of these attributes refers to the features associated with students or professionals and their certificates, such as qualifications, residency, driver’s licenses, legal representation, and professional registration. Having a tool to share this data with certainty and simplicity represents a huge opportunity both for users who will be able to authorize and control its use and for businesses who will be able to easily acquire it, significantly simplifying their processes. For example, wallet-based applications could be extended to frequent authorization cases, such as those in the banking world, authorizing instant payments or confirming payment authorization through wallets. General-purpose wallets could also be generated for specific use cases, such as those for professionals or businesses conducting digital transactions.
One important opportunity related to the functionality of these instruments lies in identifying services in a more sustainable and user-friendly way. The new regulation opens doors to many opportunities: Italy could become one of the key players in the sector, exporting its technology and expertise to Europe and beyond, in a competitive environment where Europe is certainly challenged. The challenge of interoperability should be considered in a more precise way and less from a territorial perspective.
This article was originally published in Italian on Milano Finanza on 23/09/24.