What is the added value of the EU Digital Identity Wallet compared to the current system?

Digital identification systems offered by governments in the EU today have several important shortcomings: They are not available to the whole population, they are often limited to online public services and not allow for seamless access cross-border.
The EU Digital Identity Wallets take a step change from the current system, offering personal digital wallets that are safe, free, convenient to use, protect personal data and can be used all over the EU to identify online and to share electronic documents. By offering a harmonised system all over the EU, the new rules move far beyond the existing cross-border legal framework for trusted digital identities, the European electronic identification and trust services initiative (eIDAS Regulation).
Adopted in 2014, the currently applicable eIDAS provides the basis for cross-border electronic identification, authentication and website certification within the EU. However, it does not contain any obligation for Member States to provide their citizens and businesses with a digital identification system enabling secure access to public services or to ensure their use across EU borders. Nor does it contain provisions regarding the use of such identification for private services, or with mobile devices. This leads to discrepancies between countries.
Some countries offer identification systems to their citizens while others do not and, when they do, not all these systems can be used cross-border. At the time of adoption of the Commission proposal, 19 notified eID schemes were used by 14 Member States, and take-up is low, their use is often cumbersome and business cases are very limited. This applies in particular to cross-border situations where at the time of adoption of the Commission proposal, in reality the access to only a small part of online services in another country was possible, while access to private services cross-border was not possible at all.
The EU set ambitious targets for the digital transformation; according to the Digital Decade Policy Programme, by 2030 all Europeans should have access to a voluntary digital ID and key public services online.