Germany and Spain announce a joint development of a decentralized digital identity ecosystem, planning to open it to other EU countries

Author: Hu Tao

Recently, Carme Artigas, the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence of the Spanish government, and Dorothee Bär, the State Minister for Digitalization of Germany, jointly signed a statement to establish a cooperation agreement and collaborate in the field of cross-border digital identity based on the principles of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI).
According to the agreement, the two countries will approve the establishment of a joint working group on digital identity to explore the creation and expansion of an open and decentralized identity ecosystem that can operate across borders while ensuring secure and reliable digital identities based on nationally issued identity documents and digital identity credentials.
At the same time, the public declaration from both countries indicates their intention to open the digital identity framework to other EU countries to promote the development of the EU digital identity framework.
The official German press release stated that digital identity is the foundation for providing citizens with public and private digital services, and citizens must have the right to securely share their identity data under their exclusive control. Creating a secure digital environment is one of the most important levers for the entire EU and its member states to leverage their economic potential and the European single market in the digital world.
Dorothee Bär stated in the press release that the German government views digital identity as the foundation for successful digitalization. A digital identity ecosystem based on national self-sovereign identity has already been initiated, with over 60 stakeholders from the private and public sectors, as well as a practical scenario—digital hotel check-in. More national scenarios are planned to be implemented in the coming months to expand the ecosystem.
"People should own their own data and identity. The cooperation we are starting with Germany on self-sovereign digital identity today is a step towards data sovereignty in Europe," said Carme Artigas.
According to previous news from November 2020, ten banks, including Santander Bank and Libra Bank in Spain, planned to launch a self-managed digital identity model called Dalion based on blockchain technology, with plans to introduce the product in a real production environment in 2021.