Digitalisation does not mean moving the forms from the counter to the internet but starting to rethink the relationship between the citizen and the state so that things become simpler, faster and safer, according to Minister of the Economy, Digitalisation, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Irineu Darau.
"Romania is starting to build the citizen's digital wallet. (...) Digitalisation does not mean moving the forms from the counter to the internet but starting to rethink the relationship between the citizen and the state so that things become simpler, faster and safer," Darau wrote on Wednesday in a social media post amid the release of the official RO Wallet website, agerpres reports.
According to him, RO Wallet is an important step because digital identity and electronic documents will be able to be accessed directly from the phone and used both in relation to the state and the private environment.
"More importantly, the citizens will have control over their own data: they will be able to decide what information to transmit, to whom and for what purpose," the minister added.
He went on to say that the legislative and institutional framework still needs to be built, the application must be developed and the first services must be integrated.
In this context, the Ministry of the Economy, Digitalisation, Entrepreneurship and Tourism (MEDAT) said on Tuesday that it welcomes the launch of the official RO Wallet website and the publication of the technical documentation of the project on GitHub, made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as part of the development of the national ecosystem for the European Digital Identity Wallet.
RO Wallet is the national solution by which citizens will be able to use, directly from their phone, their digital identity and a series of electronic documents and certificates. The wallet will allow access to public and private services in Romania and, through European interoperability, in the other member states of the European Union.
An important element of the solution is the users' control over their own data. They will be able to decide what information they transmit, to whom and for what purpose, including through the use of mechanisms for selective disclosure of attributes.
According to the ministry, Romania is currently in the first stage of implementation of the RoEUDIW ecosystem (the Romanian national ecosystem for the European digital identity wallet). At this stage, activities are carried out for finalising the governance architecture and the institutional framework; developing the legislation necessary for the functioning of the ecosystem; developing the first version of the national digital wallet application; integrating the mechanisms for issuing digital identity (Person Identification Data - PID); developing the first use cases, including age verification; preparing the technical infrastructure and certification mechanisms for the participants in the ecosystem.
MEDAT is part of the national RoEUDIW ecosystem and contributes, together with the other institutions involved, to its development and coordination, including by developing a regulatory framework, establishing governance rules and cooperation with the European institutions and the other member states.
