Norbert Sagstetter is the Head of the European Commission eGovernment and Trust Unit
What does the European Commission think of the Potential Consortium and the work they are doing?
The Potential Consortium is our most important large-scale pilot, because it is the biggest, and because it is addressing the widest range of real-world use cases. It is very important to us that every member-state and every partner company and organisation in the Consortium sees how the wallet actually works and has an opportunity to provide their feedback. This large-scale pilot is a true “reality check” of the whole concept.
What impact will result from the delay in publishing the Architecture & Reference Framework?
It’s important to note that the team tasked with the ARF is actively working. This is just a slight delay in implementation, not a reflection on the hard work that has been done and that indeed is still being done. The European Commission is well aware of the situation, and we’re doing everything we can to keep the delay to a minimum. Ultimately, we expect to publish a Framework that is complete and exhaustive, and we expect this to happen not too far beyond the initial target delivery date.
What sort of interoperability is expected between the different wallets of the member states?
We expect full and smooth interoperability between the different partners and service providers who are participating, of course – that is, in fact, a fundamental objective of project. Naturally, this doesn’t mean that a citizen of Country X could request a wallet from Country Y: that is not the sort of interoperability we are targeting.