Interventions

What is the European Business Wallet and why it could make life easier for companies

by Danilo Cattaneo*

21 April 2026

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

For entrepreneurs, Europe is often a single market... only on paper. It is enough to try to open a branch in another country, to participate in a cross-border public tender or even just to provide a service across the border: the forms, certifications, proofs of identity and legal representation start again, often to be redone from scratch for each administration and for each interlocutor, without true cross-border interoperability. It is precisely here that the European Union is trying to insert a 'missing piece' of digitisation: a digital identity recognised and usable in all Member States also for businesses, not only for citizens.

The technical name is European Business Wallet, literally a 'European digital wallet for businesses'. It comes as part of the reform package presented by the European Commission on 19 November 2025, together with the so-called Digital Omnibus, i.e. a set of measures designed to simplify several digital rules at once. The stated idea is to reduce bureaucracy and regulatory fragmentation and, above all, to cut administrative costs. In its simplification programme derived from the 'Draghi Report', the Commission indicates a simplification target of up to EUR 150 billion in annual savings for companies and a 25% reduction in administrative burdens by 2029 (up to 35% for SMEs).

It is not 'another app' but an interoperable legal identity, to which all documents, information, business-critical attributes can be attached. The Business Wallet is conceived as a trust infrastructure, i.e. a system that guarantees legal value to online interactions. In practice, it becomes a sort of digital wallet for legal entities and the professionals who represent them, with the possibility of exchanging data, documents, and information online throughout Europe in a simple, automated, and secure manner with legal value.

There is also a detail that is often overlooked. In the European wallet ecosystem - a term that here does not indicate a single app, but a digital container governed by common standards - there is no 'one app for all'. Several solutions, public or private, may coexist, as long as they respect the same standards. In other words, what counts is interoperability, i.e. the ability to be automatically recognised even outside one's own country.

This is also by virtue of the fact that among the functions expressly envisaged by the draft regulation is the Qualified Certified Electronic Delivery Service (SERCQ): identified as the trust service that transforms the Business Wallet into a communication channel with full legal value, for the first time standardised and interoperable throughout the Union, both in relations between companies and with public administrations. It will be particularly interesting in our country to observe how Business Wallet and PEC, which is in the process of evolving into qualified PEC, will interact and enhance each other.

The Business Wallet was created to take the friction out of companies' daily lives when they have to prove 'who they are' and 'who is signing what'. According to the approach described, it will allow official documents - licences, authorisations, certificates - to be created, stored and shared, and to communicate securely with the public administration, both domestic and cross-border.

One of the use cases that has the potential to be truly disruptive is that of digital signature powers. Signature powers, legal representatives, powers of attorney and proxies to collaborators will be able to be verified in an automated, standardised and interoperable manner at European level, greatly increasing the guarantees on contracts and transactions. . This is where the 'once only' principle comes into play, which literally means 'once only': providing information only once and not having to repeat it at every counter, public or private.

This also helps to close a gap that many countries have on the digitisation of processes, which is still very uneven in Europe. According to scenario indicators, only 56 per cent of European public services are actually accessible online across borders, while the share rises to 88 per cent when looking within individual countries. What works 'at home', therefore, gets jammed across borders, making it more difficult for businesses to reap the benefits of the single market.

Fortunately, everything is not being built from scratch. The system is already being standardised and tested, with common technical rules and collaborative testing between countries. The wallet ecosystem is being put to the test through Large Scale Pilots, i.e. large-scale European pilot projects. Two consortia play a central role today: APTITUDE and WE BUILD, the latter focusing precisely on corporate identity and payments in relations between businesses, between businesses and public administrations and between businesses and consumers. Finally, there is a link that makes the topic less abstract: the arrival of artificial intelligence agents, i.e. systems capable of planning actions and making decisions without continuous supervision. In this scenario, digital identity and proxies become a real safety belt: they serve to know who has done what and with what authorisation. This is one of the reasons why the Business Wallet is mentioned as a pillar to reduce risks and increase traceability in digital production chains.

A further piece is added to this picture: the EU Inc. proposal, presented by the Commission on 18 March 2026 and the core of the so-called 28th regime. The idea is to create an optional European company framework - not as a replacement for the 27 national systems, but as a harmonised alternative to all twenty-seven. Those who choose EU Inc. can set up a company entirely online, in forty-eight hours, with less than one hundred euros and no minimum capital requirements. The link with the Business Wallet is explicit in the text of the proposal: the wallet becomes the backbone through which the European company demonstrates who it is, who represents it and with what authorisation - anywhere in the Union, without having to start over at every counter. A digital identity and trust services infrastructure without which EU Inc. could not function fully.

If it works, the Business Wallet will have a much more concrete effect than a simple app: less paper, fewer repeated steps, more trust in digital relationships between companies and institutions, and the possibility of enforcing online and across borders a corporate identity with common rules.

(*) ceo Tinexta Infocert