Another shoehorned decision which almost no-one wanted and no-one consulted the public on, since if they did it would be a resounding:
No.
Currently in Finland I can identify online through my Finnish bank credentials, but that's of no use in Spain for example because even if they were to recognize Finnish banks as authoritative the information that is passed from there is my Finnish social security number, while in Spain I identify either by passport number or by NIE (foreign identity number).
A standardization would be convenient, that I could verify my identity online regardless of which European country I'm dealing with.
Edit: I mean from a privacy standpoint we all have social security numbers already, this (on the surface at last) just seems like a standardization of identifying online across Eueopean countries. Or am I missing something?
Edit2: But..! I would definitely vote against tying this to biometrics. But I think that ship has already sailed? Aren't everyone requiring biometrics for passports nowadays? So the only way to avoid it is to not travel.
That system is mostly just used for government websites, stuff like getting a new passport, change your registered address or view/submit your taxes. If you could do this stuff anywhere in the EU online no matter where you are from it would be way easier to move between countries and navigate different bureaucracies.
At that point anonymity on the net becomes impractical. Honestly, even with government services getting easier to access, this is mostly not worth it.
I just don't see a way to fight it, it's inevitable. The golden age of a free internet is already over. People are mostly on huge centralized platforms.
You can fight it tooth and nail but it's a constant uphill battle where you take one step forward and two steps back.
Meanwhile there will always be places like the dark web, where you can transact in crypto, but most of the internet will be strict and regulated. I just don't see why it wouldn't, since centralized power seems to be the tool of choice for most problems. It fucking sucks but it is what it is.
I'll still keep donating to the EFF but that's just delaying the process. Sorry for the pessimist take.
Identity is very important when dealing with things like taxes, legal cases and various other rights and responsibilities. Instead of jerry rigged systems like SSN in the US, having something secure and reliable is gold.
And what happens if/when they get hacked?
As an example, our banks will refuse to do business with you if you use your account to trade cryptocurrency. That is, if a bank catches you transferring money for the purpose of buying or selling cryptocurrency, you get blacklisted from doing any business with them at all forever. Your accounts get closed, you get your money back and are told to fuck off and never return. But you can still do it by using some other banking service. In contrast, if my government was the only bank I could use, they could debank me entirely and totally fuck me.
Digital government ID doesn't make the government into a bank. It also doesn't confer any powers that they don't already exercise through your physical government ID. Most countries already require some form of government ID in order to open a bank account, presumably they already blacklist these.
There are works being done in Sweden to create an open government identification standard where users can choose which trusted entity to use, assuming that those entities are trusted by the government website or service that require government ID. For Sweden that would likely mean a choice between banks or government issued digital id, which is a step up from current system of only having banks being the authority of online identification. An EU digital identity would be a third options.
Those are not a digital certificate. They are more similar to single-sign-on system. It is the "authenticate with facebook" but without facebook and for things like healthcare and taxes.
As a side note, the current system in Sweden is such that if you do get banned from banks in Sweden then you also loose your digital identity and will be unable to do most things in relation to government or healthcare.
Are you sure?
I live in Europe, and I am in favor of this idea.