European Commission Publishes Implementing Act on Onboarding for EUDI Wallets

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The European Commission has published its anticipated Implementing Act, setting out how users can be remotely onboarded to the EU’s forthcoming European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet. The Act marks a key step in operationalizing the eIDAS 2.0 framework, which gives EUDI Wallets a central role in establishing trust.

Under the published specifications and procedures, users will be able to onboard to the EUDI Wallet using electronic identification at a “substantial” level of assurance, combined with additional remote checks to meet the requirements for a “high” level of assurance.

Biometric verification is one way of raising assurance levels to meet AML standards, but it must comply with EU data protection rules by design and by default.

It states that “the onboarding of users to the European Digital Identity Wallets is a crucial step” for verifying the identity of the wallet users, binding their personal identification data to their wallets, and binding that information to the user device in which the wallets are installed.

In a community article published by Finextra, payments and blockchain strategic advisor Roberto Garavaglia said the Act makes clear that a “reasonably reliable” identity input is not sufficient on its own. The onboarding process needs to be reinforced through additional checks and controls, so the overall process reaches a “higher level of trustworthiness.”

While the Act delivers long-awaited technical clarity for EUDI Wallet introduction, it leaves key questions open. Garavaglia said the Act “shifts the debate” from missing rules to practical coordination, particularly in how eIDAS 2.0, levels of identity assurance, AML requirements, identity proofing, and regulatory reliance will work together in practice.