The Future of European Digital States - Building on Best Practices from Estonia

In light of the myriad of challenges facing European countries, including climate change, security threats, and labor shortages, the need for robust digital solutions has never been more apparent. Digitization not only offers greater efficiency, but also serves as a lynchpin for addressing these multifaceted issues, fostering resilience and innovation within states.

However, in the context of rapidly evolving digitization, trust and security are central to the digital ecosystems that form the foundation of modern societies. Estonia has been a pioneer in Europe in building a nationwide digital ecosystem based on trust frameworks based on electronic digital identities, ensuring user confidence and safeguarding critical data. Estonia's trusted digital ecosystem has spurred innovation and economic growth, helping to save 2-3% of GDP annually in transaction costs.

With Estonia's remarkable progress in digital governance, epitomized by its "Personal Government" vision with its whole-of-society approach to service delivery, and Germany's burgeoning initiatives such as registry modernization and the Online Services Act 2.0, this event serves as a nexus for cross-country collaboration. By leveraging Estonia's expertise and Germany's evolving strategies, we aim to chart a course towards a more digitally resilient Europe capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

Our joint event titled "The Future of European Digital States: Building on Best Practices from Estonia" provided a platform to share best practices and experiences between Estonia and Germany in developing digital ecosystems with digital identities and other trust measures to drive digitization. It aimed to raise awareness among public and private sector decision makers about the efficiency gains associated with the adoption of digital identities and a personal public services ecosystem. Beyond awareness raising, the event served as a platform for collaborative dialogue, enabling Estonian and German stakeholders to engage in discussions and establish networks for knowledge sharing.

The event addressed the importance of tools such as trusted and secure digital identities as well as citizen-centric proactive public service delivery as cornerstones in fostering confidence among both end-users and organizations within digital ecosystems. The debate also provided a critical examination of key technological and regulatory requirements aimed at enhancing digital security and strengthening defenses against the evolving cyber threat landscape. It covered the practical challenges of implementing digital frameworks, as well as the regulatory landscape at the EU level, which expects all European countries to offer a technological solution for eIDs, eSignatures and (Qualified) Electronic Attestation of Attributes ((Q)EAA) within an EU Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet), as well as a market for trust services by 2030.

The keynote by Estonian President Alar Karis was followed by a panel of experts from academia, the private sector and government to address the pressing issues to drive national digital transformation.

🇪🇺  This event was funded by the European Union Recovery and Resilience Facility, NextGenerationEU.