Notification of the Public Digital Identity System (SPID – Sistema pubblico di identità digitale) was sent to the European Commission in early August. The process established by EU Regulation n. 910/2014 (eIDAS) for the recognition of digital identity as a tool for access to public administration digital services comes to a conclusion (for Italy) with this communication.
From now on, we can really talk about SPID as being a European digital identity and not just in terms of being an Italian system. However, for the effective start of the adjustment phase for all other Member States’ systems, so as to allow access to their digital services through SPID, it will be necessary to wait for publication in the Official European Union Journal.
Worthy of note for the whole Italian system, is having obtained a favourable opinion on SPID from all the other European Member States within a very short space of time. This result has also been achieved thanks to a swift “peer review” process started in November 2017 and brought to conclusion last July during the Cooperation Network Meeting at DG Connect.
This has allowed Italy to become the first country in the European Union to notify a digital recognition system which also involves private individuals. In fact, although Germany was the first to activate mutual recognition of its digital identity system, it did not contemplate the participation of private individuals.
With European recognition of SPID, there will be considerable advantages for both Italian companies and private citizens. For example, companies will more easily be able to expand their activities outside our national boundaries, both when interacting with Public Administrations in other Member States without barriers to interoperability and when signing contracts electronically with private parties. Whereas private citizens will be able to obtain documents and certificates from Public Administrations in European Member States more quickly, by directly accessing all digital services activated within the European Union (online tax returns, consultation of medical records, etc.) with their own SPID credentials.
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