The German Bundestag voted on Thursday to establish the legal framework for the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI-Wallet) in Germany. CDU/CSU and SPD caucuses supported the bill, while the AfD, the Greens, and Die Linke opposed it.
The wallet is intended to allow citizens to prove their identity using a smartphone, as well as to store, manage, and use digital documents across both public and private services. It aims to simplify electronic legal and economic transactions starting in January 2027, making access to digital administrative and economic services-such as those within banking and payment sectors-easier. Furthermore, the system is designed to allow for cross-border use within other EU member states.
Markus Reichel (CDU) stated during the parliamentary debate that the objective is to make the wallet so useful, secure, and simple that people adopt it “out of conviction,” not through coercion, but through genuine added value. Konrad Körner (CSU) dismissed concerns regarding data protection, asserting that the principles of data minimization apply and that the wallet is not a central registry.
Marvi Parsa (SPD) insisted that the digital wallet must ease daily life while protecting people’s data. He reminded the chamber that the EU regulation governing the EUDI forbids any disadvantage to individuals who choose not to use the digital wallet.
In the Digital Committee, parliamentarians amended the government’s draft bill in several areas. The amendments require that the digital sovereignty of both Germany and the EU be given greater consideration during the allocation process. Users must also be granted the option to reject the inclusion of their biometric photograph in their digital identity data. Additionally, the government was urged to implement the legally required pseudonym function as quickly as possible, noting that this feature is crucial for alignment with Union law.
The Greens praised the changes made in the committee but criticized the coalition for removing an important protective rule from the passport law. Rebecca Lenhard (Greens) pointed out that the removal of this rule could enable the automatic exchange of biometric data between passport authorities, which was previously explicitly forbidden. She further criticized the plan to restrict the wallet app exclusively to US-based operating systems, viewing this as creating unnecessary dependency. She also argued that the law does not sufficiently prevent companies from requesting and legally collecting more data than they actually need.
Sonja Lemke (Die Linke) echoed this criticism, warning that the change risked pushing Germany into a “Cookie Banner 2.0” scenario where users are constantly asked to confirm massive requests for data. Lemke also lamented that by lowering the age requirement for the wallet, the law might be unintentionally setting the stage for a social media ban on children. Faced with what she deemed an “experiment clause” in the legislation regarding the “d-you” wallet app, she demanded that Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger (CDU) halt the January 2 start date, completely overhaul the technical foundations, and revise the entire law.
