Briefing
eIDAS 2.0, for people who have to write it into a tender.
What actually changed, what it obliges you to accept, and which of it touches the credentials you are buying.
The short version
The regulation extends the original eIDAS framework with a European Digital Identity Wallet that member states must offer, and obliges a defined set of relying parties to accept it. Qualified signatures keep their legal equivalence to handwritten signatures; what changes is the number of channels through which a citizen can produce one.
What it means for a card programme
A qualified signature creation device is still a qualified signature creation device. A card issued today remains valid through its lifecycle — the wallet is an additional channel, not a replacement for the root of trust that issues it.
The practical planning question is not “card or wallet” but “which of our populations can use a wallet, and what do we issue to the rest?”
What to put in the tender
Ask for the certification numbers rather than the certification claims; ask how long-term validation is handled after certificate expiry; ask what happens to the issuance platform if the supplier disappears. Those three answers separate the serious bidders quickly.