EID Belgium: The Belgian ID card
As of 2020, over 28 million Thales' national ID cards have been issued nationwide.
Initiated in 2003, the BelPIC (Belgian Personal Identity Card Project) program reached 100% of its population targets at the end of 2011.
The polycarbonate credit card-sized document is the country's national identification card, the official and mandatory ID document for Belgian citizens over 12.
The third generation of electronic ID cards has been deployed since 2020-2021, and over 2 million cards are delivered annually.
The new Belgian ID card (2021)
The new Belgian ID card model with two fingerprints was officially launched in a pilot in Lokeren at the beginning of 2020.
According to The Brussels Times of 14 September 2020, the new ID cards, including the holder's fingerprints, will be issued by the year's end in all municipalities.
Discover its new look and feel in L'Echo, dated 14 January 2020.
As of January 2021, all municipalities are issuing fingerprint ID cards.
The fingerprints will only be accessible via the card's contactless chip and not stored in a central database.
Existing eID cards without fingerprints will remain valid until expiration, loss, theft, or damage.
This move aligns with European Regulations 2019/1157, which requires member states to include fingerprints on their identity cards.
The new eIDs also feature changes like a repositioned photo and contact chip, different colors, and unique nationality identification.
By 2030, all Belgians are expected to hold a new eID card.
The Belgian Mobile ID scheme
An advanced mobile authentication solution is securing Belgium’s fast-growing itsme® Mobile ID scheme, which offers the convenience of a single enrollment, log-in, and signature process for numerous online services.
The app is certified for eIDAS (EU electronic ID standards) and can be used to meet PSD2 (EU open banking regulation)and GDPR (EU privacy protection) requirements.
In May 2018, a year after its launch, the mobile ID scheme already had 350,000 users and was processing one million transactions/month.
6,7 Million citizens are using the scheme in March 2023, according to L'Echo.
On average, a user does six banking transactions and three e-government transactions per month.
Part of the Belgian web site dedicated to national identity cards and their applications;
The 3 Belgian ID cards
The ID cards are classed as electronic since they have an electronic microprocessor.
National ID card
The national ID card contains two certificates: one for authentication and one for electronic signature.
Some information is listed on the card and the chip, while others are only on the microcontroller (such as the address).
The ID1 card (credit card format) shows the holder's portrait, name and surname, date and place of birth, gender, nationality, ID card number, validity, signature, and the National Register number (unique identification number given at birth) and place of issuance.
It is to be carried (compulsory) from the age of 15 at an average price of 25 Euros. The new ID card includes two fingerprints stored in the chip.
Residency card
The residency card is a card without a chip for the part needed for traveling abroad and with a chip (on the back) to offer residents the same access rights to online services as Belgian citizens.
The card is dedicated to all foreigners (non-EU or Swiss) residing in Belgium.
Kids-ID
The Kids-eID allows children under 12 to be identified rapidly within or outside Belgian borders.
It is, therefore, a secure identity and travel document.
Other uses can be developed, for example, to register or for identification at schools, swimming pools, libraries, etc.
Emergency service is also linked to the card.
An alert can be sent out if the child has a problem or is in danger. If they so wish, parents can link this central number to a list of telephone numbers reached in an emergency.
The cost is around 10 Euros depending on the area. This secure document is not compulsory and will not include fingerprints. The card design stays unchanged. More on identity cards for kids here: Kids-ID.
A keystone of the Belgian eGovernment
The government-issued ID has become a pillar of the Belgian eGovernment initiative.
The country's eGov strategy aims to create a single virtual Public Administration while respecting users' privacy and the specificities and competencies of all Government bodies and administrative layers. Its main objective is to improve public services for citizens and businesses by making them more convenient and open.
So what's the story here?
800 eGov applications online
Over 800 public applications are available. As of August 2016, 72,4% of users use online authentication with the national eID, 17,9% using a paper token (based on the principle of one-time password), and 9% with another method.
In 2016, more than 30 million secure transactions were done by 3,6 million users with their smart personal identity card, according to FEDICT, part of the Federal Service Policy and Support.
In 2016, monthly authentication requests ranged from 1.6, with a peak of 4,2 million in June 2016.
Belgium is starting to reap the digital dividends of such a national eID scheme.
For example, in 2015, 67% of all new companies created in the Kingdom were done online – source Fedict 2015 annual report.
Belgian citizens can also use their eID cards to report crimes directly over the Internet to the federal police. Following successful feasibility studies, crimes such as vandalism, shoplifting, and bicycle theft can be reported in just a few clicksTheirer secure eID card identifies the citizen reporting the crime. The process saves significant time compared to the traditional lengthy process of writing crime at police stations, which takes an average of two hours.
The ID card is also a civil servant ID for identification and electronic signature. In particular, as of March 2019, The electronic signature is used by all the 589 national registries and 102 consular posts to issue birth and marriage certificates or extracts.
Reporting information about Belgian ID cards and their applications.Reporting information about Belgian ID cards and their applications.Reporting information about Belgian ID cards and their applications. The scheme is part of the Belgian government's plan to simplify the country's administrative processes.
Personal Identity cards to access new services
Belgian citizens have a single, sovereign identity. They also have a single trusted digital identity that provides citizens access to all services.
In the background, privacy protection operators actively protect privacy; control flows, and the barriers between different areas. This essential pragmatism has generated spectacular savings in terms of the costs of managing and using secure eID cards.
Pragmatism and consultation with all parties involved have been the keystones for the success of this program. But probably the most remarkable aspect is that Belgium wasted no time by becoming engaged in ideological struggles on data protection.
Security is not a way to better lock up the past and open the door to a safer future.
It is not data that is being protected, but data flow because we know that we need to prevent the misuse of such flows from beginning to end.
In essence: modernity for citizens without ideologies.
In particular, this is founded on excellent regional cooperation, expanding the scale of achievements by investing in all local social services.
Please, don't ask me twice!
The law, passed in Belgium in 2014, also represents an essential step forward in the move towards e-government in which the customer, whether a citizen or company, stands at the center of affairs.
Federal public services can find much of the data they need via "authentic sources," such as the Belgian National Register or the Banque Carrefour des Entreprises (healthcare).
But it still occurs more often than it should that citizens or companies are asked to submit the same information several times to different federal public services. This means having to do things twice, both for customers and government services.
The new law prohibits services from re-requesting data from citizens and companies available from the federal authorities in usable electronic form. To the extent it is possible, they must search for and re-use existing data from accessible databases.
The re-use of available data:
- decreases administrative costs
- improves the services provided
- Increases the efficiency of the Federal Government. Federal public services must use the National Register number to identify citizens in data from authentic sources. For companies, this is the company registration number.
Of course, such use is strictly limited to that necessary to accomplish their tasks. (Source Fedict)
Cost savings for citizens and businesses
Digital use, savings, and openness indexes are in English on Belgium's digital dashboard.
Major eGov applications, including Tax-On-Web, Police-On-Web, eBirth, Electronic Service Cheques, My File, and MyRent, are being monitored, and savings are measured year after year.
eID: a central link in the chain of trust in the country
The Belgian eID is an essential element in the chain of trust that provides a framework for safe digital exchanges.
By certifying the person's identity doing the transaction and protecting access to citizens' data, the Belgian eID card actively participates in the success of the e-Government policy.
More resources
- Learn from eGov best practices and digital dividends
- Read more on the Belgian ePassport
- Related press release (itsme)
- Child ID software: peace of mind for parents
Downloads
The identity card program in Belgium
The keystone of e-Government
The identity card program in Belgium - [PDF - 2mb ]