Estonia’s electronic residency to be opened to all

The Estonian government plans to improve the country’s competitiveness by allowing people from third countries to apply for an e-identity card.

Estonia is about to cement its reputation for digital leadership by becoming the first country to offer so-called electronic residency, or e-residency, to citizens from third countries. From Monday (1 December), it will expand its electronic residency services, used by Estonians since 2001, to make them accessible to people from inside and outside the European Union, an initiative agreed unanimously by the national parliament in October.

E-residency means that anyone can acquire a digital identity card issued by the Estonian government, which entitles them to use Estonian and EU public and private-sector services without being physically present in the country. Thus they can launch companies, use banking services and sign documents. The facility is seen as especially useful for entrepreneurs and foreign investors.

For Estonia, the benefits include attracting investment, improving cross-border business and further strengthening its image as a digital-friendly country. The card will be issued to the e-resident after verification of details, payment of a €50 fee and when fingerprints have been taken at a police office in Estonia. The government is also working on the possibility of allowing people to register at an Estonian embassy.

Use of digital signatures is not unprecedented in Europe: countries such as Germany and the Netherlands also make use of such methods. But Estonia’s digital identity card leads the way in the extent to which it is integrated in the use of public and private-sector services, such as online voting – a right that remains restricted to actual residents only.

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By February 2018, the Republic of Estonia’s 100th anniversary, it aims to have registered 100,000 e-residents, though a longer-term target of 10 million by 2025 has been set. “Estonia will have become a country where people from all over the world come to create and test novel information and communication technology solutions,” said Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas.

Over 11,000 people have already expressed interest in acquiring e-residency – impressive figures, as experts initially said the biggest challenge would be to motivate people with no prior knowledge of the Estonian digital environment to join. The United States is home to the largest number of potential applicants, followed by Finland, Russia and the UK.

Siim Sikkut, ICT policy adviser to the Estonian government, says that e-residency “does not entail actual citizenship or residency or right of entry to the European Union”. But the EU has a common interest in its success, he says, as it would make the “digital single market more attractive to the wider world, bringing new investment and business or digital export opportunities”.

The European Commission said it was “following the developments with interest”. The initiative is in line with the EU’s goal of “improving the daily life of citizens and business by making the most of digital technologies”, a spokesperson said. As the initiative provides citizens from third countries with a digital identity and not actual EU citizenship, it does not breach EU law. The Commission spokesperson added: “The decision on giving third-country nationals access to national digital infrastructures is under the sole control of the member states, which also bear all responsibilities and liabilities related to such decisions.”

In July EU ministers adopted guidelines that will make it easier from the second half of 2015 for electronic identification methods to be accepted across the EU. By the second half of 2018, the aim is for mandatory mutual recognition.