‘Trojan horse’: MEPs sound alarm over EU digital ID wallet

Members of European Parliament (MEP) began sounding the alarm last week over the European Union’s plan to roll out a digital ID wallet, which it hopes to do by September 2023. 

The digital ID wallet would allow all 450 million EU citizens to access their identity information online and on a mobile app created by the government. Europeans would be able to use it as a single point of identification to access public and private services. 

“It’s going to have an enormous impact,” said MEP Rob Rooken in an interview with European Parliament last week. “It will be a replacement for your passport so you can identify yourself with it, but there will be much more in it. It will contain financial information, entry tickets, your personal medical file, information about vaccines, education certificates, you name it. We think it’s very creepy and it will soon be launched.” 

Some fear that a digital ID will be required for access to almost every service. 

In 2020, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the project to create a bloc-wide digital ID “that we trust and that any citizen can use anywhere in Europe to do anything from paying your taxes to renting a bicycle,” she said. 

European Commission Executive Vice President for Digital Margrethe Vestager said that it will even be used to access social media accounts such as Google and Facebook. 

“We are worried about the risk that engaging in all sorts of everyday activities will soon not be possible without this Digital ID Wallet anymore,” warned MEP Rob Roos in the interview with Rooken. “We also saw it with the COVID passport, which was mandatory to get access to important parts of society too. With the Digital Identity Wallet, we fear this will be the future as well.” 

Like the COVID-19 passports introduced in some countries, which demanded citizens’ private medical information in exchange for access to basic services, Roos worries that the government and corporations can simply strongarm private citizens into providing any information. 

“You can compare it with cookies on the internet: websites often only function to their full extent if you allow all cookies, including the ones that are non-essential,” continued Roos. “And this is what government and big corporations will do too: they will ask for more information than they are currently allowed to. This hollows out our privacy and it makes citizens powerless against the government and big corporations.” 

Roos did not deny the conveniences that a digital ID would bring, but he said it comes at a price. 

“And of course it is convenient to rent a car abroad without all sorts of paperwork,” the Dutch MEP admitted. “But this relatively small benefit does not outweigh the loss of privacy and freedom.” 

Rooken agreed, saying that by using the digital ID for access to nearly everything, Europeans are putting themselves at the mercy of the government who can cut off their access at its discretion. 

“...it also means you can be cut off from these services,” Rooken said. “I find this to be a very scary development. We are following this closely and we will do everything we can to prevent this from coming into existence.”