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The Legal Basis

The following legal documents serve as the exclusive source of requirements for the mDL Use Case target solution:

  • eIDAS: This EU regulation establishes a legal framework for electronic identification and trust services used across the Union to enable secure digital interactions. It outlines the requirements for Member States to recognize electronic identification schemes from other countries and to provide European Digital Identity Wallets.The eIDAS relevant Implementing Acts are also considered as source of requirements on this document.
  • Directive (EU) 2025/2205 (4th Driving License Directive): Directive (EU) 2025/2205 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2025 on driving licences, amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Directive (EU) 2022/2561 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Regulation (EU) No 383/2012 (Text with EEA relevance) (Artile 5 and Annex I "Part C: Specifications for the mobile driving licence").

The Directive lays down common rules on several aspects of the driving licence and defines that "mobile driving licence" means a driving licence in its digital format, issued in accordance with Article 5 of the Directive. Additionally, Article 5.1 states that "Member States shall issue mobile driving licences based on the Union standard specifications laid down in Annex I, Part C". The main rules specified in Article 5 and Annex I, Part C of this Directive that influence the target solution of the mDL Use Case are the following (the statements in emphasis (bold) imply features of the target solution):

  • Article 5:

    • 5.2: Mobile driving licences shall be issued to the European Digital Identity Wallets as electronic attestations of attributes in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
    • 5.4: Member States shall ensure that the personal data necessary for the verification of the driving rights of the holder of the mobile driving licence is not retained by the verifier, unless retention is authorised by Union or national law.
    • 5.5: Member States shall inform the Commission of a list of issuers of mobile driving licences which they shall keep up to date. The Commission shall make these lists available to the public through a secure channel and in an electronically signed or sealed form suitable for automated processing.
    • 5.7: By [date of entry into force + 12 months], the Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down detailed provisions concerning the visual appearance, interoperability, data and record updating standards, security, and organisational measures for the processing and protection of personal data, testing and the technical and security standards for the exchange and the trusted lists of trusted issuers of mobile driving licences for verifying mobile driving licences, including verification features and the interface with national systems. It shall, to the extent possible, take into account the general framework and technical specifications necessary for recognition of those driving licences by third country authorities. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 22(2).

  • Annex I, Part C

    • The mobile driving licences and other relevant systems shall comply with the ISO/IEC 18013-5 standard on mobile driving licences and Regulation (EU) 910/2014.
    • The Member States shall allow the holder of the driving licence to retrieve a mobile driving licence to their European Digital Identity Wallet.
    • The European Digital Identity Wallet containing the mobile driving licence shall allow automatically or upon request the updating or re-issuing of the mobile driving licence.
    • The European Digital Identity Wallets shall allow the holder of the driving licence to display or transmit to a third party all or part of the data contained in the mobile driving licence.
    • Competent authorities of the Member States shall be authorised to request from European Digital Identity Wallets the data contained in the mobile driving licences in order to be able to ascertain the driving rights of the holder of the driving licence (verification).
    • The information transmitted directly from the electronic attestation of the mobile driving licence stored in the European Digital Identity Wallet shall allow competent authorities to determine the driving rights of the holder of the mobile driving licence (verification), including any restrictions applicable in the Union or in the territory of a Member State.
    • Member States shall not consider a mobile driving licence valid when it has expired or when it has been revoked.
    • Where a Member decides to revoke a mobile driving licence, it shall enter information about this decision into a revocation list managed by that Member State or make it accessible to other Member States for the purpose of verification in a different way, free of charge and in an operable manner.
    • A Member State, other than the one issuing a driving licence, imposing a driving disqualification shall immediately notify the Member State which issued the driving licence.