Every EU Member State must make a digital identity wallet available to citizens by the end of 2026 under the European Digital Identity Regulation. Jacques Van Zijp, writing in a Euronews opinion article, argues the EUDI Wallet could reduce friction in cross-border services and help a single market operate at digital speed.
The EU-wide requirement
The wallet isn't simply a digital copy of an identity document stored on a smartphone, Van Zijp writes. It lets a person verify a specific fact without disclosing everything on the document. For example, a citizen could prove they're over eighteen without revealing their name, address or date of birth.
Van Zijp says this approach would give citizens greater control over the information they share and reduce the amount of personal data circulating through the economy. The regulation sets the availability deadline, but adoption will depend on whether citizens, public authorities and businesses use and integrate the system.
Opening a bank account, renting a flat or signing up for a service can require people to photograph an identity document, upload proof of address, enter the same details again and wait for verification. Repeating those steps in another Member State can be more cumbersome, he writes.
Van Zijp says these repeated procedures weigh on European economies through abandoned transactions, duplicated verification costs, slow onboarding, fraud losses and cross-border friction. He presents the wallet as a way to make checks faster while limiting disclosure to what each transaction requires.
What the wallet could verify
Potential credentials include verified bank account and employment information, driving licences and diplomas. The system could also support electronic signatures and confirmation that someone is authorised to act for another person or a company.
For businesses, Van Zijp says the wallet could lower costs, speed up onboarding, strengthen authentication and reduce the number of customers abandoning online processes. In energy, transport, health and defense supply chains, trusted professional credentials could simplify secure access.
He argues that a credential certified by a trusted authority could be checked instantly, in person or remotely, without manual review. The design aims to avoid treating security, privacy and performance as competing priorities. Van Zijp summarises the intended balance: “Less data disclosed. Stronger assurance. Faster transactions.”
Portable credentials, he says, could make it easier for citizens and businesses to operate across Member States and remove administrative barriers to cross-border activity. Anchoring exchanges in European law, standards and identity infrastructure could create a model that combines interoperability with privacy, and innovation with democratic control. He also says the approach could interest governments across Africa, Asia and Latin America developing digital identity systems.
Adoption remains uncertain
Availability alone won't ensure that people use the wallet. Van Zijp identifies four requirements: simple and reliable enrolment; support and alternative channels for people with different levels of digital confidence and access to technology; clear ways to correct information and recover access; and a functioning ecosystem of public and private services.
Those safeguards address practical risks he identifies: information can be incorrect, credentials can fail and devices can be lost. He says digitalisation shouldn't create new barriers for citizens who need support or delegation mechanisms.
The system also faces a coordination problem, according to Van Zijp. Businesses may hesitate to invest without enough users, while citizens may see little reason to adopt a wallet until it works with services they value. Governments can help by enabling high-value public services and working with private-sector providers on everyday uses.
Van Zijp is Executive Vice President Europe at IN Groupe, a French state-owned company specializing in secure identity and document systems. He says work supporting wallet and credential pilots for public and private issuers across several Member States points to the need to earn public confidence after the regulatory framework and technology are in place. “Europe has legislated trust. Now we must earn it. The growth will follow.”