Using your national eID in another EU country

You can often use your national eID to sign in to a public service in another EU country, because the eIDAS Regulation requires them to recognise each other’s notified electronic identification schemes. The rule has applied since 29 September 2018 and covers online public services that already accept an electronic ID. It works through national gateways called eIDAS nodes, and it works best for public services that have implemented the connection.

What the law actually requires

The first eIDAS Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, full text on EUR-Lex) created two linked duties:

• A Member State may notify an eID scheme to the European Commission once it has been reviewed by other Member States in a peer-review process. The notification states the level of assurance of the scheme: low, substantial or high. See levels of assurance for what those mean.
• Any Member State whose public services require electronic identification at substantial or high must accept notified schemes from other Member States at the same or a higher level.

Two limits are easy to miss. First, the duty applies to public sector bodies, not to private companies. Second, it only covers services that already use electronic identification. If a municipality in another country offers a paper form only, your eID changes nothing.

The large majority of Member States have notified at least one scheme, for example Germany with the online function of its identity card, Estonia with its ID card, Italy with SPID and CIE, Spain, Belgium and others. The Commission keeps a country overview of eID schemes. Not every country is covered, and a few have only partial coverage, so look up your own scheme first.

How the connection works

Each Member State operates an eIDAS node, a piece of infrastructure that translates between its national scheme and a common European format. The technical profile is based on SAML 2.0 (see our page on SAML).

Here is what happens when you sign in to a foreign service:

1. On the foreign portal you choose “sign in with eID from another EU country” and select your country.
2. The portal’s node (the connector) redirects you to your own country’s node (the proxy service).
3. You authenticate with your national scheme, for example by tapping your ID card on your phone or confirming in a national app. Your credentials never go to the foreign portal.
4. Your country’s node returns a signed assertion with a minimum data set: current family name, first name, date of birth and a unique persistent identifier. Optional attributes such as address or place of birth can be added when the scheme supports them and you consent.
5. The foreign portal checks the assertion and logs you in.

The matching problem

The unique identifier in the assertion is generated for the eIDAS exchange. It is not the national ID number you know from home. A foreign service that sees it for the first time has to decide whether you already have an account. Common outcomes are an additional registration step, a postal letter to confirm your address, or a manual review. This is not a failure of your eID, but a gap in how services handle foreign identities, and it is one of the main reasons cross-border eID feels clumsy.

Data protection in the exchange

The eIDAS exchange is built around data minimisation. The mandatory data set is small, optional attributes need your consent, and you authenticate with your own country’s provider rather than on the foreign site. The nodes are operated by national authorities under national law and the GDPR, so the usual rights of access and complaint apply in your home country. It is still sensible to read the consent screen: the foreign portal sees whatever attributes the scheme releases, and you cannot take back data once it has been transferred.

Where it still falls short

• Patchy coverage. Not every public service has connected to the node infrastructure, and some countries have only a few of their services open to foreign eIDs.
• Low visibility. The foreign login button is often hidden or poorly translated.
• Different levels. A service that requires “high” will not accept a scheme notified at “substantial”.
• Residents and non-citizens. Eligibility depends on who your home country issues the eID to.
• Private sector. Banks, insurers and online shops are not obliged to accept notified eIDs, although some do for onboarding. See our guide to digital identity for banking.

What changes with the EUDI Wallet

The EUDI Wallet is designed to replace much of this plumbing. Under eIDAS 2.0 (explained here), public sector services that require electronic identification must also accept wallets from all Member States, and the wallet presents attributes directly to the relying party instead of routing everything through national nodes. The data model also includes a person identifier, which should reduce matching headaches, though details depend on national implementation. Read more in our guide to the EUDI Wallet. Wallets are being rolled out through 2026 and beyond, so for now expect both approaches to exist side by side.

Qualified signatures follow similar recognition rules: a QES from one Member State must be accepted in all others, as explained in our guide to qualified electronic signatures.

A practical checklist

1. Find out whether your national eID is notified and at which level.
2. On the foreign portal, look for the EU login or “eIDAS” option and check which countries are listed.
3. Keep your phone, card reader or national app ready, and make sure your eID certificate and any required PIN are valid.
4. Expect a possible registration step on the first use.
5. If the portal does not accept your eID, contact the service desk and cite the eIDAS recognition rule. For a time-critical matter, ask about a paper or in-person alternative in parallel.

For each country’s own eID, see our country guides.