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1 Introduction

1 Introduction

1.1 EUDI Wallet ecosystem

The European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet is a secure, user-controlled digital application that empowers citizens to manage their official identity and other personal data. It allows Users to request verified digital information (known as "attestations") from trusted issuers (known as PID Providers and Attestation Providers), store that information, and present it to trusted parties (called Relying Parties) in a way that prioritizes privacy and security.

This Architecture and Reference Framework defines the following aspects of the EUDI Wallet ecosystem:

  • Chapter 2 describes the main functionalities of a Wallet Unit, from the perspective of the User.
  • Chapter 3 describes the main roles and components within the EUDI Wallet ecosystem, with their associated responsibilities.
  • Chapter 4 describes the architecture of EUDI Wallet ecosystem, including its design principles, the components that make up a Wallet Unit and the interfaces between a Wallet Unit and other entities, the proximity and remote attestation presentation flows, the different architectures that may be used for implementing a WSCD, the lifecycles of the main entities and components, and the implementation of pseudonym generation and presentation.
  • Chapter 5 describes the elements that make up an attestation, the different (legal) attestation categories that will be used in the EUDI Wallet ecosystem, the different attestation formats, the role of attestation rulebooks and associated catalogues, and the different attestation presentation protocols.
  • Chapter 6 contains the trust model for the EUDI Wallet ecosystem. For each of the main entities and components in the ecosystem, this chapter describes the mechanisms used to ensure it can be trusted by the entities it interfaces with, throughout its lifetime. These mechanisms may include registration, revocation, authentication, and authorisation.
  • Chapter 7 discusses Wallet Solution certification and risk management.
  • Chapter 8 discusses the accessibility of all User-facing components of the EUDI Wallet ecosystem.
  • Chapter 9 describes how this document is and will be developed.
  • Chapter 10 contains a list of references.
  • Chapter 11 lists the Annexes to this document.

The European Digital Identity Framework is established by Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2024/1183 (the European Digital Identity Regulation). This ARF is developed as part of the Common Union Toolbox to support the implementation of that Regulation, as described below.

On 3 June 2021, the European Commission adopted COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION (EU) 2021/946 of 3 June 2021 on a Common Union Toolbox for a coordinated approach towards a European Digital Identity Framework, calling on Member States to work closely together with the Commission towards the development of a Toolbox including a technical Architecture and Reference Framework (hereinafter the ARF), a set of common standards and technical specifications and a set of common guidelines and best practices.

The Recommendation specifies that these outcomes will serve as a basis for the implementation of the European Digital Identity Regulation, without the process of developing the Toolbox interfering with, or prejudging the legislative process.

The Recommendation establishes a structured framework for cooperation between Member States, the Commission, and, where relevant, private sector operators to develop the Toolbox. The European Digital Identity Cooperation Group (EDICG), formerly known as the eIDAS Expert Group, is responsible for:

  • exchanging best practices and cooperating with the Commission on emerging policy initiatives in the field of digital identity wallets, electronic identification means and trust services;
  • advising the Commission in the preparation of draft implementing and delegated acts;
  • supporting Supervisory Bodies in the implementation of the European Digital Identity Regulation;
  • organising peer reviews of electronic identification schemes;
  • engaging with the Commission and other relevant stakeholders to develop a Common Union Toolbox;

The European Digital Identity Cooperation Group's page can be found at the official page.

The European Digital Identity Cooperation Group has since further developed the concepts and specifications for the European Digital Identity Framework. The current ARF version is based on the legal text adopted by the co-legislators, including the Commission Implementing Regulations adopted under it. The complete list of these implementing acts, with their official titles and links, is provided in Section 10.1.

To harmonise the conformity assessment of the functional requirements that Wallet Solutions must support under CIR 2024/2981, the European Commission and the Member States are establishing the Functional Conformance Assessment Framework (FCAF), which complements the cybersecurity certification of Wallet Solutions. The FCAF is described in Section 7.5.

1.3 Purpose, scope and audience

This EUDI Wallet Architecture and Reference Framework (ARF) defines the architecture, components, and interactions of the EUDI Wallet ecosystem. It provides the technical foundation for ensuring ecosystem-wide interoperability, security, and privacy.

Specifically, this document serves three primary purposes:

  • Explains the architecture: It details the system components and their interactions, serving as background information for the High-Level Requirements (HLRs) found in Annex 2.
  • Guides implementation: It acts as a common reference for the harmonised implementation of the European Digital Identity Regulation, guiding the development of technical specifications, standards, and operational procedures.
  • Supports development of reference implementation: It is used to develop the Wallet Solution reference implementation and will serve as a foundation for future updates to Implementing Acts based on technological advancements.

This ARF is informative and intended to support implementation; it does not replace the legally binding European Digital Identity Regulation or its adopted implementing and delegated acts, which are the only mandatory requirements.

This document applies exclusively to EUDI Wallet ecosystems compliant with the Regulation. It represents the current state-of-play of the European Digital Identity Cooperation Group and will be updated over time.

The audience of the ARF consists of:

  • Entities acting as PID Providers, QEAA Providers, PuB-EAA Providers, or EAA Providers,
  • Wallet Providers,
  • Relying Parties,
  • Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs), and
  • Supervisory Bodies.

1.4 Relation to the Large-Scale Pilots (LSP)

To support the development of a reference implementation of a Wallet Solution and to pilot its usage across different priority use cases, the Commission launched a call for proposals on 22 February 2022 under the Digital Europe Programme to pilot use cases for the EUDI Wallet ecosystem at a large scale.

The objective of the Large-Scale Pilots (LSP) call is to support the piloting of the EUDI Wallet ecosystem around a range of use cases involving both public and private sector stakeholders. The LSPs will test the EUDI Wallet ecosystem in both national and cross-borders contexts and integrate with the iterative development of the reference application.

The works of the LSPs will be aligned with the ARF, which will guide pilot system design and architecture development together with the release of the reference implementation.

The LSPs are expected to provide feedback on the ARF as they develop and interact with Relying Party services, Qualified or non-qualified Electronic Attestations of Attributes (Q)EAA Providers, Person Identification Data (PID) Providers, Qualified and non-qualified Trust Service Providers and Users in meaningful interactions under the proposed use cases.

1.5 Definitions

The definitions used in this document can be found in Annex 1 of this document.

1.6 Change Log

In this version of the ARF, the following changes were made:

  • Alignment with the amending Commission Implementing Regulations for the core EUDI Wallet framework: PID and EAA (amending CIR 2024/2977), integrity and core functionalities (amending CIR 2024/2979), ecosystem notifications (amending CIR 2024/2980), and protocols and interfaces (amending CIR 2024/2982).
  • Alignment with the amending Commission Implementing Regulation on the registration of Wallet-Relying Parties (amending CIR 2025/848).
  • Changes due to the revision round discussion paper for Topic J (Wallet-to-wallet interactions).
  • Changes due to the revision round discussion paper for Topic X (Relying Party registration), which introduced the concept of Relying Party Services, especially in Section 3.11.2 and in Topic 44.
  • New requirements for Wallets, Relying Parties, and issuers to retrieve and manage trust anchors from both Trusted Lists (ETSI TS 119 612) and Lists of Trusted Entities (LoTEs, ETSI TS 119 602).
  • New Section 7.5 introducing the Functional Conformance Assessment Framework (FCAF) — a shared, reusable set of test cases for the functional requirements that Wallet Solutions must support (per Annex III of CIR 2024/2981), published and maintained at conformance.eudi.dev. It complements, and does not replace, the security evaluation in Sections 7.2 and 7.3.
  • Several issues raised via Confluence and GitHub have been resolved.

Apart from these changes, a number of editorial mistakes were corrected.

1.7 Further refinement of the ARF

The Architecture and Reference Framework (ARF) will be further refined and maintained according to the ARF work plan, which addresses the work to:

  • Refine and stabilize high-level requirements (HLRs) for core EUDI Wallet functionalities.
  • Maintain alignment with relevant standards and technical specifications.
  • Maintain alignment with certification requirements.

The work will be progressed through discussions with Member States, the European Digital Identity Cooperation Group, civil society, industry representatives, and professionals, ensuring broad and comprehensive feedback from all relevant stakeholders.

The outcomes of these discussions will be incorporated into future versions of the ARF. The document will continue to evolve iteratively, improving its content and addressing new topics as they emerge. The process for providing feedback and details on how updates are managed is described in Chapter 9.

The topics to further refine and stabilise the ARF are available on GitHub, including progress updates.

Please note the ARF and its supporting materials remain open to continuous feedback via the internal and public channels, and stakeholders can propose new or revised topics at any time. Updates to the ARF are implemented through the ARF work plan: topics are prioritized, scheduled, and progressed via the agreed process, and the work plan is updated accordingly as implementation needs evolve.

1.8 Drafting Process and Discussion Papers

The development of the Architecture and Reference Framework (ARF) is guided by discussions with Member States and experts from the European Digital Identity Cooperation Group, as well as by feedback from industry and the wider community through GitHub.

For each discussion topic, a Discussion Paper is created and iteratively refined until consensus is reached. Once finalised, the paper is integrated into the next release of the ARF. An overview of all Discussion Papers and the ARF versions into which they were integrated can be found in the corresponding README file.

Once a Discussion Paper has been integrated into the ARF, it is no longer updated. Over time, its content may therefore become outdated, for example, when high-level requirements are modified in later ARF versions. This can happen for several reasons:

  • Adjustments at integration
    Requirements or descriptions may already be slightly modified when a Discussion Paper is integrated into the ARF, to ensure consistency of language and style across the ARF. Sometimes further refinements are made in collaboration between the ARF editors and the authors of the paper, for example to solve contradictions between high-level requirements proposed in the discussion paper and existing requirements in other parts of the ARF.
  • Interdependence of topics
    Discussion topics are not entirely separate. The introduction of new Discussion Papers may lead to adjustments of existing requirements or descriptions in the ARF.
  • Continuous feedback
    The Commission receives feedback via Confluence, GitHub, and internal reviews. When accepted, these comments lead to further changes in the ARF.

Although the ARF may reference Discussion Papers as background information, historic Discussion Papers (including their proposed high-level requirements) should not be used. The final requirements are those in the latest version of the Annex 2 of the ARF. In addition, as said in Section 1.3, the ARF itself is informative and not legally binding.