Identification

eIDAS (Electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market) is an EU regulation on the provision of electronic identification and trust services. According to the legislation, all providers of e-services in the member states must approve another member state’s identification tokens. Thus, a person using another EU country’s eIDAS-approved token must be provided access to identify themselves in Finnish authorities’ e-services.

Thus, under the eIDAS regulation, all public sector actors must ensure that they comply with the requirements contained in the regulation and allow EU citizens to identify themselves with an eIDAS-approved token.

eIDAS regulation: frequently asked questions about cross-border identification

In the Suomi.fi e-Identification, eIDAS identification is shown to the user among other identification methods (bank identifiers, mobile certificate and certificate card).

In order to access a Finnish public administration e-service, the person using another country’s eIDAS token must select the identification method “Foreigners’ identification methods”. Next, they should select their own country so that they can be redirected to identification using their identification token.

At the initial stage, German tokens can be used for identification in Finnish e-services. Estonia and Italy joined in March 2020, and Spain in September 2020. The timetable for the countries to be added after this is still open.

eIDAS tokens are identification means provided by other EU countries, and they are used for accessing Finnish public administration e-services that use Suomi.fi e-Identification.

In order for the use of the token to be possible in the eIDAS network, it must be approved in the EU. Steps are taken during the approval process to ensure that the token meets the data security requirements and that other countries can place their trust in it. All tokens of each eIDAS country will not be approved at once. Instead, tokens will receive eIDAS-approval as countries and token providers request it. In practice, eIDAS identification will become more widely-used as more tokens are accepted.

Approved countries and their identification tokens

No Finnish tokens have yet been eIDAS-approved. Therefore, Finns cannot use other EU countries’ services with a Finnish token yet. Of the Nordic countries, only Denmark has approved token for eIDAS identification.