Summer 2019 ends with a new pre-notified eID scheme
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On 16 August 2019, the European Commission announced that Denmark has pre-notified NemID, Denmark’s nationally-issued eID scheme.
The pre-notification is the first step in a process that would enable citizens legally residing in Denmark to use their NemID credentials to access public services in other Member States. This would make cross-border interactions easier and more secure for Danish and Denmark-based EU citizens. Denmark is the fourteenth Member State to pre-notify its national eID scheme, and a full overview of pre-notified and notified eID schemes under eIDAS can be found here.
The mutual recognition of eID schemes across Europe is mandated by Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market (commonly known as the eIDAS Regulation). The Regulation states that, since 29 September 2018, all online public services requiring electronic identification assurance corresponding to a level of 'substantial' or 'high', must be able to accept the notified eID schemes of other EU countries.
NemID consists of a user ID, a password and a code card containing one-time codes needed to log-in. This allows Danish citizens and individuals legally residing in Denmark, including students, to digitally prove their identity online to access eGovernment services such as health, student loans, education and others. Users can also securely log onto mobile banking, and access a variety of other private services. In total, over 13,000 public and private services can be easily accessed with NemID.
Users must enter their User ID and Password to authenticate.
The NemID code-card, pictured above, contains numbered rows and corresponding one-time codes. When logging in, the one-time code corresponding to a specific row will be asked. The corresponding one-time code can only be found on your code-card. Don't lose it!
Here, the one-time code corresponding to row #1111 must be entered to complete the authentication process and access over 13,300 public and private services. The corresponding code can only be found on the code-card.
The eID scheme relies on municipal citizens’ offices, banks, and on the Danish Prison and Probation Services that can issue a NemID on several means, such as a key card, a mobile app, and others. Already, NemID is used by approximately 5.15 million individuals, and has an average 60 million transactions per month.
Following the Danish pre-notification, the other Member States participating in the Cooperation Network may peer-review NemID. The actual notification of the eID scheme should then follow within six months. Other Member States have to recognise a notified eID scheme at the latest 12 months after the publication of the notification in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eID Building Block primarily supports the Member States in the roll-out of the eIDAS Network (the technical infrastructure which connects national eID schemes). CEF eID is a set of services (including software, documentation, training and support) provided by the European Commission and endorsed by the Member States, which helps public administrations and private Service Providers to extend the use of their online services to citizens from other European countries.
To see the full overview of pre-notified and notified eID schemes under eIDAS,