EU – Canada alignment on digital credentials, identity and trust services |The road towards compatible and secure tools
27 February 2025, Online Workshop
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Canada and the EU have been developing comprehensive strategies on digital identity management, digital credentials and trust services. Digital identification solutions can provide safe and efficient access to public and private services such as healthcare, finance, and e-government platforms. In this respect, human-centric digital identity and digital credentials are a priority area of cooperation. Canada and the EU should continue working towards the interoperability of their trust services, which are key enablers for public administrations, business transactions and e-commerce.
Canada is currently standing up new platforms to enable a single point of access for users to sign in to government services, and for issuing and verifying digital credentials, including exploring interoperability of digital credentials across jurisdictions, leveraging global standards. In the EU, the Electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services (eIDAS) regulation provides a standardised framework for secure digital identification across member states, offering a cross-border, interoperable system that could serve as a model for Canada’s efforts.
To further strengthen compatible solutions, this webinar seeks to promote bilateral cooperation, share best practices, and explore how regulatory provisions can be reinforced through the creation of harmonised standards under the Canada – European Union Digital Partnership.
The main goal of this Expert Workshop is to bring together representatives of different stakeholders from government, industry, academia, and other relevant institutions to identify and discuss relevant use cases and provide recommendations for a possible follow-up. Proposals for concrete actions shall be agreed upon to boost the cooperation in this important topic, reinforcing peer learning and sharing of knowledge.
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Agenda
| Time | Session Details | Speakers |
|---|---|---|
15:00 CET 09:00 EST | Welcome Canada-EU Digital Partnership: overview and progress to date on digital identity and digital credentials and trust services. | Gabriele Bertolli, Deputy Head of Unit, European Commission, DG CNECT/D3 Carlos Lopez Rodriguez, Project Officer, European Commission, DG CNECT/D3 Paolo De Rosa, Vicente Andreu Navarro, European Commission, DG CNECT/H4 |
15:15 CET 09:15 EST | Introduction to the Government of Canada’s approach to digital credentials. This session will provide detailed insights into what the Government of Canada is doing to enable the use of digital credentials for Government of Canada services and to enable interoperability of digital credentials across jurisdictions. | Paul Jackson, Director of Government of Canada Issue and Verify (Digital Credentials) at the Canadian Digital Service |
15:30 CET 09:30 EST | Introduction to EU’s Digital Identity Wallet, existing digital signatures and eID initiatives. Use cases for international cooperation. This session will provide detailed insights into EU’s Digital Identity Wallet, digital signatures and eID standardisation work plan. | Paolo De Rosa, Policy Officer, European Commission, DG CNECT/H4 Vicente Andreu Navarro, Policy Officer, European Commission, DG CNECT/H4 |
15:45 CET 09:45 EST | Results of the cooperation between EU - Canada on interoperability of digital credentials. Open discussion | Stergios Tsiafoulis, Programme and Policy Officer, European Commission, DG CNECT/E3 (Next-Generation Internet) Ben Piercey, CTO, Co-founder, AffinitiQuest Dominik Beron, Co-Founder & CEO, walt.id |
16:15 CET 10:15 EST | Round table: Advances and best practices in standardisation for digital identity, digital credentials and trust services. Q&A - Feedback and questions from the audience. | Moderator: Tanya Suarez, BluSpecs CEO and INSTAR coordinator Markus Sabadello, Founder, Danube Tech, INSTAR Cybersecurity and eID Task Force Scott Cadzow, ETSI ISG ETI Chair, INSTAR Cybersecurity and eID Task Force Sebastian Elfors, CEN/TC 224/WG 20 European Digital Identity Wallet Tim Bouma, Special Advisor, Digital Governance Council |
17:00 CET 11:00 EST | Closing remarks and next steps of joint work on use cases | Carlos Lopez Rodriguez, Project Officer, European Commission, DG CNECT/D3 Costas Kapsouropoulos, Digital Counsellor EU Delegation to Canada |
