The Danish eID Case: Twenty years of Delay

The focus of this article is to explain why there is still no qualified digital signature in Denmark as defined by the EU eSignatures Directive nor any other nationwide eID even though Denmark had an early start in eGovernment, and a high level of "e-readiness" compared to other nations. Laying out the technological, organizational and legal dimensions of eID in Denmark, and comparing these with a number of other European countries made it possible to explain this paradox. Thus, the three main reasons for the special route development has taken in Denmark seems to be concerns over privacy, lack of intergovernmental coordination and lack of cooperation between public and private sector. However, with the recent tender on digital signatures won by the PBS and the roll-out of the NemID it seems that Denmark will finally - after twenty years of delay - have an eID which can be widely used in the public as well as the private sector. **

** The research reported here is based on the analysis of documents and personal experience of the authors. It has been conducted under contract with the Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifrib), Germany, funded by Volkswagen Foundation, Germany.