Late on 15 October 2026 the German Bundestag approved the government’s Digital Identity Act (Digitale Identitätengesetz, DIdG), creating the legal framework for the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI-Wallet) inside Germany. The vote saw the governing CDU/CSU-SPD coalition back the bill against opposition from the Greens, Linke and AfD. The law transposes revised EU eIDAS 2.0 regulations and designates the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs as the competent authority to licence wallet providers and oversee trust services. From January 2027 every German citizen will be able to store a high-assurance digital ID, driving licence, residence permit and other credentials on a smartphone app branded “d-you”. The wallet is designed for cross-border use: a German eID will be accepted by public-sector portals and, eventually, private companies anywhere in the EU that adopt the scheme. For global mobility the implications are significant. The Federal Police border-control booths at airports plan to pilot wallet-based passenger enrolment, potentially letting EU/EEA travellers pre-clear identity and residence status before arrival. HR teams could verify work-authorisation documents remotely, speeding up onboarding of foreign assignees inside Germany. The law also mandates a pseudonym function—added via last-minute amendment—to limit data exposure when users prove age or residency. Roll-out costs are projected at €13.5 million one-off and €1.1 million annually for business, offset by expected savings of €122 million in reduced paperwork across federal, state and municipal agencies. Companies operating in Germany should review their identity-verification processes, ensure their HR and tax systems can consume wallet credentials and monitor forthcoming technical specifications from the Bundesnetzagentur, which gains supervisory powers under the Act.
Source: Deutscher Bundestag
