“A digital EU driving licence is on its way!” the European Commission has trumpeted – but experts said national variations in licence rules would cause confusion.
In addition, following the EC’s pronouncement on March 25, privacy advocates argued the proposal could erode personal freedoms.
“The EU will be the first economy to have a digital driving licence that works across borders,” said the EC, after the European Parliament and European Council agreed on the proposal. “
EU driving rules are shifting into a higher gear!” it added.
Others were not convinced. “No. Europe is embracing a digital identity that will be required across Europe. It’s about control,” countered Swedish lawyer Mats Nilsson on X on the same day.
It was, though, an “important milestone for the digital wallet”, said Ronny Khan, a senior advisor to the Norwegian Digitalisation Agency, who previously worked on digital identity at the EC.
Diving licences were, after all, used much more widely than just for operating an automobile, he pointed out.
Andrew Tobin, a UK-based digital identity specialist, said they “can cover around 90 per cent of the identity verification needs of the average person even though they aren’t specifically ‘official’ identity documents”.
The new directive would introduce digital EU driving licences that “can be accessed on mobile phones or other digital devices, and used throughout the entire EU”, the EC stated.
Still, former European Parliament employee Stefana Di Battista warned that “potential disadvantages for EU citizens” included “data protection and cybersecurity questions” from the expanded digital identity wallet.
In addition, national variations in applying medical or probation rules also “could create confusion”, she added.
The EU Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport claimed on X on March 26 that the new rules would “improve road safety and facilitate free movement across the EU”.
Former European Parliament adviser Gary Cartwright responded about the digital driving licences: “Not sure how that will make the roads safer, however”.
In 2006, the EU created a single credit-card-style European driving licence to replace the 110 different models in existence throughout the bloc and the European Economic Area (EEA) at the time.
At a national level, Norway was the first EU or EEA country to introduce a mobile version of its driving licence on a nationwide basis.
Several other countries have followed suit, including Denmark, Spain and Germany, although these digital driving licences have not been valid outside their issuing countries.
The ambitions of the new directive also spread beyond digital licences to new EU-wide rules around driving — an area that up to now had been largely a matter for member states.
Along with a new, EU-wide accompanied driving scheme for 17-year-olds learning to drive, the directive would introduce a bloc-wide probationary period for new drivers.
It also would bring in a new requirement for learner drivers in their theory and practical tests, to prove their awareness of “pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, and other micro-mobility users”.
The EC’s aim was that by 2028, every driving licence issued in the EU would be available digitally by default.
On February 5, Ireland’s transport minister Darragh O’Brien told the Dáil, Ireland’s parliament the “EU-wide digital licence [was] expected to become the default driving licence when rolled out”.
The EP and European Council would now proceed to adopt the new directive, which member states would then have four years to include in their national legislations.
UK political commentator Edwin Hayward said the EU’s new digital identity wallets would also “act as ID, mobile driving licence, electronic payment system, key document storage [education credentials, travel documents and so forth], proof of professional affiliations, mobile European Health Insurance Card and more”.
The EC has mandated that every EU member state must provide citizens with access to digital identity wallets by the end of 2026.
