THE ITALIAN EXPERIMENTATION OF THE EU DIGITAL WALLET

The Autonomous Province of Trento will be the first in Italy to test some use cases of the European digital wallet: a system that will allow EU citizens, residents and businesses to certify their identity in a fully secure manner, without the need to provide copies, photocopies, stamped papers or other bureaucracy to access public and private services in all member states. The nationwide test will thus implement one of the projects of the POTENTIAL Consortium, which is among the large-scale pilots selected by the European Commission to make the first applications of the European Digital Identity Wallet concrete.

“The European wallet is an extraordinary integration project that will make it possible for citizens to use services offered by public and private operators throughout Europe.  It is the next step from free roaming, allowing us to use our smartphones in the EU at no extra cost. For example, we will be able to provide proof of identity, sign documents or buy medicines anywhere in Europe,” commented Roberto Viola, Director-General of DG CONNECT at the European Commission.

The framework proposed by the European Commission envisages the creation of a digital wallet, available through a smartphone app that the user will fully control,  thanks to which he or she, on a voluntary basis and with the maximum guarantee of privacy and security, will be able to share certificates and officially sign documents in just a few clicks throughout Europe. Each member state will provide citizens with an e-Wallet free of charge, but citizens will not be obliged to use it.

“The European digital identity challenge has important benefits for citizens and institutions. To win it, however, attention must be paid to two crucial aspects: security, and privacy. In line with this approach, FBK has set up an entire center to the topic of Cybersecurity and devotes special attention and care to identifying and securing data and privacy by developing automated tools that can improve systems. For this, the Foundation collaborates with the main Italian players on the topic of Digital Wallet and at the European level with the entire scientific community active on the topic,” specified Andrea Simoni, FBK’s secretary general.