Declaration from the Nordic and Baltic Ministers of Digitalisation on promoting the adoption of the European Digital Identity Wallets in the Nordic-Baltic region

The Nordic and Baltic countries are among the most digitally advanced societies in the world. We have a strong reliance on electronic identification, digital trust services, and reliable population registries of high quality. We, the Nordic and Baltic Ministers of Digitalisation, are committed to ensuring that our region maintains its position as a leader in public sector digitalisation, and that the region becomes the most digitally integrated in the world by 2030. 

Digital identity wallets are an important element in the digitalisation of the Nordic and Baltic regions. Close cooperation between the public and private sectors is essential to make digital identity wallets as functional as possible from the perspective of citizens, companies and public authorities.  

The EU regulation on electronic identification and trust services (the eIDAS1 regulation) facilitates secure cross border transactions by establishing a framework for trust services and electronic identification. The revised regulation (the eIDAS2 regulation) entered into force on 20 May, 2024 and established a framework for digital identity and wallets. The regulation requires each EU Member State to ensure the availability of at least one certified European Digital Identity Wallet by 24 December, 2026. To pursue this goal, it is important that our region cooperates to produce a harmonised set of requirements and criteria for wallets offered in these Member States, enabling the creation of a competitive market of accredited conformity assessment bodies in the Nordics and Baltics. 

The national authorities responsible for wallet certification will cooperate to produce and accept a common Nordic-Baltic certification scheme for European Digital Identity Wallets. By using a harmonised set of the requirements, we can strengthen the digital integration of the Nordic-Baltic region. The wallet certification ensures that the certified wallet solutions are safe, resilient, interoperable and follow the rules of privacy protection. The project for common certification criteria will conclude at the end of 2026, coinciding with the deadline for enforcing the revised eIDAS2 regulation at the national level in the EU Member States. 

To enable this, we the Nordic and Baltic Ministers of Digitalisation will: 

• Support building the prerequisites for a competitive single market of accredited conformity assessment bodies to promote cost-efficient delivery of certified wallet solutions in the Nordic and Baltic countries in order to pursue the timeframe required by the eIDAS2 regulation, taking into account the time of implementation in the EU and EEA EFTA states respectively.
• Ease the deployment of wallet solutions across the Nordics and Baltics by promoting a harmonised set of requirements to prevent fragmented and conflicting requirements for wallet providers. 
• Call upon relevant actors to enhance coordination to avoid redundant work across Nordic and Baltic countries when setting up the wallet certification schemes. Having a common certification scheme ensures cost-efficiency and the reduction of administrative burdens among national competent authorities.
• Promote the role of Nordic and Baltic countries as pioneers of trustworthy digital identification means, widespread use of trust services, and cross-border interoperability. This also requires engaging closely with EU bodies and Member States beyond the Nordic and Baltic region.

This declaration builds upon the declaration of the Nordic and Baltic Ministers of Digitalisation on cross-border identity matching in the region adopted in Reykjavík on September 22, 2023.