What is eIDAS 2.0?
eIDAS 2.0 (Regulation (EU) 2024/1183) is the EU’s update to the original eIDAS framework, introducing the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet) — a sovereign, interoperable digital identity that EU citizens can use to identify themselves, share verified credentials and sign documents across member states and key online services. Adopted April 2024; technical specifications and pilot phase through 2026; member-state wallets must be available by 2026.
What the EUDI Wallet enables
- Identity proof: verified identity for online and offline services.
- Credential portability: driver’s licence, academic diploma, medical prescription, professional qualifications carried in wallet.
- Qualified electronic signatures: legally equivalent to handwritten signatures EU-wide.
- Privacy by design: selective disclosure — share only the specific attribute requested.
- Use for VLOPs and large platforms: “very large online platforms” must accept EUDI Wallet for authentication.
Compared to eIDAS 1.0
- eIDAS 1.0 (2014): framework for trust services and recognition of national eID schemes; uneven adoption.
- eIDAS 2.0: mandates wallet provision, sets technical interoperability, broadens trust services (qualified electronic ledgers, electronic archiving).
What eIDAS 2 changes for product teams
The EU Digital Identity Wallet turns identity assertion into infrastructure: large platforms and regulated sectors (banking, telecom, transport) must accept wallet-based identification where users offer it, and qualified electronic attestations of attributes (age, diplomas, mandates) become legally recognised evidence across the Union. For product and legal teams the planning questions are concrete: which onboarding flows must accept the wallet, how selective disclosure reshapes KYC data minimisation (requesting full identity documents where an attribute attestation suffices becomes hard to justify), and how qualified signatures from wallets slot into existing e-signature stacks. For Turkish companies serving EU users, wallet acceptance lands inside the same compliance perimeter as GDPR — by way of doing business in the market, not by domicile.