Primary sources

Documents from the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council and the Official Journal. Each entry shows the date its link was last opened and its content confirmed.

• [1] Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of European Business Wallets. European Commission, COM(2025) 838 final, 2025-11-19. Checked 2026-10-22.

  The Commission proposal that creates European Business Wallets: a harmonised digital tool letting companies, sole traders and public bodies identify themselves, sign and seal documents, and exchange verified attestations across EU borders. Public sector bodies must accept a Wallet for identification, authentication, document submission and notifications; use stays voluntary for businesses. Wallet-based actions get the same legal effect as their paper or in-person equivalent, backed by qualified trust services, a European Digital Directory and mandate-management for delegated authority, supervised by the existing eIDAS bodies.

• [2] European Business Wallets (policy page). European Commission, Shaping Europe's digital future. Checked 2026-10-22.

  The Commission's own policy page introducing European Business Wallets as a way for companies and public administrations to identify, authenticate and exchange data securely across EU borders, covering digital identity verification, document storage and sharing, digital signatures, and secure communication with governments. It cites an estimated €160 billion in annual savings for businesses and a further €5 billion in cost reductions through 2029, with implementation starting two years after the regulation is adopted.

• [3] Simpler EU digital rules and new digital wallets to save billions for businesses and boost innovation. European Commission, press release, IP/25/2718, 2025-11-19. Checked 2026-10-22.

  The Commission press release announcing, on 19 November 2025, a digital package combining a digital omnibus that simplifies AI, cybersecurity and data rules, a Data Union Strategy, and the European Business Wallets proposal. It frames the Wallets as a single digital identity for companies to simplify paperwork and cross-border business, projecting up to €150 billion in yearly savings for businesses from the Wallets and up to €5 billion in administrative-cost savings from the wider simplification package by 2029.

• [4] Establishment of European Business Wallets (procedure file). European Parliament, Legislative Observatory, 2025/0358(COD). Checked 2026-10-22.

  Parliament's official procedure record for the European Business Wallets file, run as an ordinary legislative procedure. It logs the Commission's proposal (19 November 2025), Parliament's referral to the Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) committee (19 January 2026, rapporteur Eero Heinäluoma) with opinions from IMCO and JURI, and the committee vote to open interinstitutional negotiations on 10 September 2026 — the authoritative source for the file's current stage and the actors steering it through Parliament.

• [5] European business wallets (legislative train file). European Parliament, Legislative Train Schedule. Checked 2026-10-22.

  Parliament's Legislative Train tracker entry for the file, describing the Wallets as tools to cut administrative burden and fragmentation via secure identification, authentication and cross-border data exchange for economic operators. It records the Commission's proposal (19 November 2025), the rapporteur's draft report (April 2026) and the Council's negotiating position (9 June 2026), and notes public bodies would have to accept Wallets within 24 months of entry into force while use stays voluntary for businesses.

• [6] European business wallets: Council adopts negotiating position. Council of the European Union, press release, 2026-06-09. Checked 2026-10-22.

  The Council's press release announcing its negotiating position, adopted 9 June 2026, on the Wallets: EU governments back the Commission's model of digital identity, e-signing and delegated authority with legal equivalence to paper, while adding flexibility for Member States to keep complementary national systems and raising the deadline for authorising Wallet providers from 30 to 60 days. It clears the way for trilogue negotiations with Parliament.

• [7] Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market (eIDAS). Official Journal of the European Union, 2014-07-23. Checked 2026-10-22.

  The original eIDAS Regulation, building EU-wide trust in electronic transactions by requiring Member States to mutually recognise each other's notified electronic identification schemes at the "low", "substantial" or "high" assurance levels, and by harmonising rules for qualified trust services such as electronic signatures, seals, time stamps and registered delivery. Qualified electronic signatures get the same legal effect as a handwritten one, trust service providers are liable for non-compliance, and each Member State designates a supervisory authority to audit them.

• [8] Regulation (EU) 2024/1183 amending Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 as regards establishing the European Digital Identity Framework. Official Journal of the European Union, 2024-04-11. Checked 2026-10-22.

  "eIDAS2": amends the original eIDAS Regulation to create the European Digital Identity Wallet framework, requiring Member States to provide a certified Wallet letting people and businesses store, manage and selectively disclose identity data and electronic attestations of attributes, with user-controlled sharing and a mandatory dashboard of past disclosures. Wallet data must be logically separated from other provider services, very large platforms must accept the Wallet on request, and the user-facing app code must be open source.

• [9] Directive (EU) 2017/1132 relating to certain aspects of company law, which establishes the European Unique Identifier (EUID). Official Journal of the European Union, 2017-06-14. Checked 2026-10-22.

  A codification of EU company-law directives. Its relevant provision requires that every company and branch registered in a Member State get a European Unique Identifier (EUID) so it can be unambiguously identified across the Union, combining the Member State, the domestic register and the company or branch number. The EUID exists purely for communication between the interconnected national business registers (the BRIS system) and does not replace the company's existing national registration number for ordinary business use.

• [10] Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1502 setting out minimum technical specifications and procedures for assurance levels for electronic identification means pursuant to Article 8(3) of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014. Official Journal of the European Union, OJ L 235, 9.9.2015, p. 7, 2015-09-08. Checked 2026-10-22.

  The implementing act that defines what the eIDAS "low", "substantial" and "high" assurance levels actually require, in four areas: enrolment (including how strictly identity is verified), electronic identification means management, authentication, and the issuing organisation's own management and security practices. Higher assurance levels demand stricter identity proofing and stronger authentication factors, and the requirements are built on international standards such as ISO/IEC 29115 so that Member States' differing national eID schemes can still interoperate.

• [11] Architecture and Reference Framework for the EU Digital Identity Wallet. European Commission, EU Digital Identity Wallet, v3.0.0, 2026-07-21. Checked 2026-10-22.

  The Commission-maintained technical blueprint for the EU Digital Identity Wallet mandated by eIDAS2: high-level requirements, a set of numbered technical specifications, trust and certification models, and design guidance covering areas like payments, data portability and wallet-to-wallet interactions. Version 3.0.0 (21 July 2026) describes itself as the single source of truth Member States and wallet providers build against, and still tracks open discussion topics such as privacy-preserving zero-knowledge proofs.

• [12] Commission Staff Working Document accompanying the Proposal for a Regulation on the establishment of European Business Wallets. European Commission, SWD(2025) 837 final, 2025-11-19. Checked 2026-10-22.

  The impact-assessment-style analysis behind the Business Wallet proposal, modelling cost savings with the EU Standard Cost Model across five categories of administrative activity: identification and authorisation, exchange of documents and information, compliance and verification, record keeping and data management, and cross-border coordination. It defines adoption ranges for economic operators of about 10.43%, 33%, 50% and 75% (its realistic upper bound, in line with industry ambition for 2030), plus a theoretical 100%, with public sector bodies assumed at 100% throughout. At 75% adoption it estimates maximum annual direct benefits of about €169 billion (about €14 billion for public bodies, about €155 billion for businesses); at 100% adoption, about €225 billion. Neither figure matches the €150 billion press-release estimate or the €160 billion policy-page estimate, and the document does not reconcile the three numbers with each other.

• [13] Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of European Business Wallets: General approach. Council of the European Union, Presidency note to the Permanent Representatives Committee, ST 7659/26, 2026-05-22. Checked 2026-10-22.

  The Council's general approach text, linked as such from its press release of 9 June 2026. A cover note from the Cyprus Presidency summarises the changes made in the Council's working party, and the annex sets out the full Regulation with additions to the Commission proposal in bold and deletions struck through. Among other things it turns provider notification into an authorisation procedure with a 60-day review, drops the fast track for qualified trust service providers, lets Member States choose their supervisory body, removes the fixed 24-month deadline for public sector bodies, and ties the dates of application to the adoption of implementing acts.

• [14] Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 establishing a single digital gateway to provide access to information, to procedures and to assistance and problem-solving services. Official Journal of the European Union, OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 1, 2018-10-02. Checked 2026-10-22.

  The Single Digital Gateway Regulation. It creates one online entry point to the information, procedures and assistance services citizens and businesses need across the Union, and requires the procedures listed in its Annex II to be available fully online to cross-border users. Article 14 establishes the technical system for the automated cross-border exchange of evidence between competent authorities, applying the "once-only" principle so that the same data need not be supplied to public authorities more than once. Evidence moves only at the explicit request of the user, and the Regulation requires the exchange to comply in full with data protection law, including data minimisation and purpose limitation.