Coordinated by the French and German Ministries of the Interior, and led by public institutions, POTENTIAL aims to test and demonstrate secure, interoperable, and user-centric digital identity wallets across Europe. While public authorities define the regulatory and institutional framework, private sector actors play a complementary role in the implementation and validation of these solutions.
Public leadership, private contribution
POTENTIAL stands out for its governance model. On the one hand, public authorities drive the vision, use cases, and legal architecture, ensuring that the European Digital Identity remains grounded in public trust and citizen empowerment.
On the other hand, private stakeholders such as technology providers, banks, telecom operators, and qualified trust service providers contribute deep domain expertise, technical capabilities, and user experience insights. Their active participation ensures that solutions are not only compliant with the chosen EUDI Wallet standards but also fit for real-world deployment across various sectors.For example, major European banks test wallet-based onboarding flows under strict regulatory supervision (for example, the expected AML package). Telecom companies experiment with SIM registration use cases, while trust service providers integrate qualified electronic signatures in full compliance with eIDAS.
Supporting real-world use cases
This collaborative model is brought to life through six concrete use cases: access to eGovernment services, online bank account creation, SIM card registration, digital driving license, qualified e-signatures, and e-prescriptions.
Private stakeholders actively test and integrate digital identity functionalities within their services. Their operational involvement is essential to assessing the scalability, interoperability and adoption of the digital identity wallet.For instance, rental car companies and insurers are exploring how to verify driving credentials via the wallet, without physical documents that are usually subject to fraud. Healthcare IT providers and pharmacies take part in cross-border e-prescription pilots—always under a framework designed to uphold the public interest and citizen sovereignty.
Toward inclusive and trustworthy digital identity governance
The European digital identity wallet is conceived as a public service—designed to serve citizens first, and governed by public institutions. It is a sovereign digital infrastructure, grounded in democratic values, that enables individuals to manage their identity online with strong guarantees of privacy, security, and inclusion.
Its development follows a public-private collaboration model, in which responsibilities are clearly defined and complementary. Public authorities set the vision, governance framework, and legal safeguards. Private stakeholders contribute through implementation, sector-specific integration, and usability testing—ensuring that the solutions are robust, scalable, and adapted to real-world needs.The POTENTIAL model of collaboration—notably distinctive within the European digital identity landscape—not only enables cross-border interoperability across Member States; it also offers a forward-looking blueprint for building inclusive, rights-based digital ecosystems in Europe.