Dutch MEP spoke in the EU Parliament against possible abuse of E-ID

Marica Micallef

A Dutch European member of Parliament has spoken in the EU Parliament against the dangerous step the E-ID will have on people’s freedoms.  His speech is as follows:

“Dear Colleagues, at first sight, the European Digital Identity seems a useful tool but there are big risks.  There are many reasons to assume that the e-ID will be abused in the future.  The risk is that companies and governmental organizations receive access to more personal data than they currently have a right to.  Without sharing this personal information, you suddenly lose access to essential parts of society.  This is exactly what happened with the Covid passport.  This was horrible. Never again should people be excluded from society this way.  I worry that the use of the e-ID will not remain voluntary.  That online anonymity will not be an option anymore, that citizens will no longer have the free choice to decide which information they wish to share.  In Amendment 9, we already see such a system emerge: all transactions of the user will be saved automatically.  We are only one step away from, for example, a personal CO2 budget.  The infrastructure will be there already. We should not allow this to happen.”

The video of this speech can be watched here: