IT minister: EU digital services should be available equally across union
European Union member states' digital services must be made available to all citizens of the union Minister of Entrepreneurship and IT Andres Sutt (Reform) says. Sutt made his comments at a time when the union has rolled out a timetable for greater and more integrated pan-EU digital services, including digital wallets.
Speaking to a meeting of EU telecommunications ministers in Luxembourg, Sutt said: "Digitization is not a goal in itself; it creates practical solutions and added value from which our businesses and citizens will benefit," he said.
"Estonian citizens should be able to access the same e-services which are available to Belgian nationals and vice versa. The e-ID solutions and services created by member states should be available across borders," Sutt went on.
The European Commission presented this week a framework for trusted and secure digital identity for all Europeans citizens.
The framework also aims to provide a digital wallet for member states' citizens and businesses, enabling the linking of digital IDs to other identification and the transition from paper documents to digital ones.
This digital wallet would build on digital ID issued by member states, meaning Estonia's and other states' ID cards and e-ID solutions would not be replaced, but rather all member states would be subject to an obligation to make reliable digital IDs available to their citizens
Andres Sutt said that Europe needs to be more ambitious in this arena, and also pledged support for the so-called European Digital Compass, which would establish milestones for assessing progress towards the objectives of Europe's Digital Decade in four key areas set out by the European Commission, namely digital skills, safe and functional digital infrastructure and the digitization of entrepreneurship and public services.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
