Digital credentials and trust frameworks in Europe
A practical map of what credentials count where, how trust is established, and how Europe’s wallet-based recognition is being built — for anyone working in higher education, public services, health, or workforce mobility.
Four ways into the topic
Pick the entry that matches what you need — vocabulary, trust mechanisms, credential formats, or sectoral practice.
Foundations
What we mean when we talk about digital, the difference between digitisation and digitalisation, and the credential family vocabulary — Badge, Open Badge, Credential, Digital Credential, EDC, Microcredential.
Trust frameworks
The legal and technical infrastructure that makes a credential independently verifiable: eIDAS, EUDI Wallet ARF, EBSI + DC4EU, Europass / EDCI, the trusted-lists ecosystem.
Credentials
Credential formats and data models: W3C-VC (with the W3C-VCDM data model), SD-JWT (with the SD-JWT VC data model), Open Badges, European Digital Credentials. With a focused argument on why education needs W3C-VC.
Sectors
How credentials and trust frameworks land in specific sectors: higher education (depth), public services / SDG-OOTS, health / EHDS, workforce mobility / Erasmus+EMREX.
Drawn from real practice
Content on this site grows from active work in several European initiatives and working groups:
- EUNIS SIG Mobility & Digital Credentials
- AURORA Alliance Digital Campus (WP6)
- DC4EU large-scale pilot — educational credentials for the EUDI Wallet ecosystem
- EBSI — European Blockchain Services Infrastructure
- European Skills Data Space — EU common data space for skills and qualifications
- EUDIW & SDG/OOTS synergies working group — interoperability between the European Digital Identity Wallet and the Single Digital Gateway / Once-Only Technical System
- eIDAS ToolBox — technical specifications for the EUDI Wallet under Regulation (EU) 2024/1183
The visuals are open-source (EUPLv2); the prose is independent commentary, not an official position of any institution.
For higher-education readers in particular, the EUNIS SIG Practical Guide v1.0 is the canonical reference — it is mirrored, expanded, and re-organised across this site. See Higher education for the practical view, and Resources for downloads and external references.
At a glance
- 30+ pages across four areas — Foundations, Trust frameworks, Credentials, Sectors
- Multilingual support coming: EN · CA · ES (English first; Catalan and Spanish to follow)
- All visuals released under EUPLv2 — free to reuse with attribution
- Author: Lluís Ariño, Universitat Rovira i Virgili