The Nordic and Baltic region represents some of the most digitally advanced societies in the world. An enabling element for this is the availability and vast adoption of electronic identity (eID) means, both among citizens and service providers. This report is part of a mutual effort that was initiated by the Cross Border Digital Services (CBDS) Programme and the Nordic-Baltic eID Cooperation (NOBID) project with the aim to expand the Nordic-Baltic countries´ national success in eID to also cover cross-border interoperability and digital mobility in the region.
The efforts in achieving cross-border digital mobility in the region are rooted to the shared visions and mutual interests of the Nordic and Baltic countries. These are constitutionalized under the umbrella of the Ministerial Council for Digitalization (MR-DIGITAL) at the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM). The NOBID project operationalizes this by coupling the digital maturity of the region with the trust and willingness among the Nordic and Baltic countries to further integrate the region.
One key element in achieving this is solutions for cross-border identity matching of natural persons. This constitutes the process in which a service provider recognizes and serves a “returning user” from another country in the region. A returning user is a person who has previously been in the country where the service is provided but has since then moved back to his or her home country. This is a highly relevant situation for many service providers in our region, as there are many people moving between the Nordic and Baltic countries, for instance for working or studying.
The exact solution on this procedure is unique to every country and depends on the existing legal and technical national frameworks. However, the high-level challenges are the same on a regional perspective. To tackle this, we established a working group for identity matching, consisting of key experts from the Nordic and Baltic agencies and ministries responsible for digital identity in their countries. Together, we aim at sharing experiences, creating best practices, and casting a holistic view on the regional challenges.
This report presents an analysis of the as-is situation and provides perspectives on the possibilities for identity matching procedures in the future. It shall, however, be noted that further analysis and involvement of relevant key stakeholders, which was outside the scope of this report, is necessary. Furthermore, developments in the EU such as the revision of the eIDAS regulation that may impact the identity matching procedures in the region, was not finalized at the time of writing of this report.