Bridging borders through interoperable tools: Canada-EU Collaboration on digital credentials and trust services

INSTAR, uniquely positioned between the EU standardisation strategy and the Canada-EU digital partnership, recently co-organised a comprehensive webinar with the European Commission, focusing on digital credentials, identity, and trust services. Featuring government officials, standardisation experts, and industry leaders from both the EU and Canada, the webinar explored the path to secure and compatible tools for digital credentials, highlighting mutual interests, ongoing initiatives, and potential synergies. 

A common vision for digital identity 

Both Canada and the EU are advancing strategies for digital identity management and trust services to enable seamless access to public and private services. 

• Canada is working towards a unified login to access over 270 online services and improving digital credentials infrastructure to provide excellent user experience across tools and devices through common APIs. These efforts, many of which are currently in pilot phase, aim to enhance security, minimize reputational risks, fraud, and reduce costs.
• The EU has developed eIDAS, a detailed regulation for electronic identification, authentication, and trust services, which provides a standardised framework for secure digital identification across member states. The European Digital Identity (EUDI) wallets are a key initiative, designed to be free for all EU citizens and interoperable across the Union. The wallets will support secure identification, data storage, and electronic signing, with pilot projects set to launch in early 2026.

Building on past collaborations 

Gabriele Bertolli, Deputy Head of Unit at the European Commission, revisited past Canada-EU collaborations, from several scene-setting workshops on interoperability back in 2021 to pilot projects such as NGI Sargasso in 2023. These initiatives have set the stage for deeper cooperation on cross-border digital credentials. 

The challenge of mutual recognition 

Despite the evident interest and aligned approach of both jurisdictions on digital credentials, mutual recognition of the developed frameworks is essential for maximising the impact of the Canada-EU cooperation. In this regard, our CEO and INSTAR coordinator, Tanya Suarez, led an expert panel focusing on the complexities of interoperability, but also on key learnings and best practices from preceding initiatives and efforts. 

Through the discussion, it was established that interoperability and in extension mutual recognition are not easy goals, and not merely dependent on harmonised standardisation efforts. Across domains, but also in the field of digital credentials in particular, there are lots of different usually incompatible standards and protocols. Moreover, the use cases that standards are developed for might not even address the use cases users adopt. 

As Tim Bouma, Special Advisor at the Digital Governance Council, emphasised during the panel, achieving mutual recognition requires not just common “instrumental requirements” or technical standards, but also “intentional requirements”, as demonstrated, for example, in the aftermath of Brexit and the acceleration of processes to avoid problems regarding bilateral recognition of digital services. In the context of Canada and the EU, in particular, issues like diverse governance arrangements and institutional cultures need to be addressed. That said, demonstrated collaboration between the two parties, such as Canada drawing inspiration from the EU’s eIDAS framework for its own trust services, allow for a positive outlook on what can yet be achieved.

Path forward: Towards global recognition 

Carlos Lopez Rodriguez from the European Commission highlighted the need for interoperable digital credentials to facilitate trade and travel between Canada and the EU, but also the ultimate goal of a universal approach to digital trust services, backed by multilateral agreements, such as the UNICITRAL model law on international commercial arbitration. 

Costas Kapsouropoulos, Digital Counsellor at the EU Delegation to Canada, reinforced this vision, while also revealing that the European Commission has commissioned a study to analyse the compatibility of eIDAS and the Canadian frameworks, promising valuable insights later this year. 

All in all, the webinar underscored a shared vision for secure, interoperable digital credentials, identities and trust services between Canada and the EU. As both regions work towards aligning their frameworks, the path forward is clear: stronger cooperation, harmonised standards, and a focus on global recognition.