A qualified electronic signature is made with a qualified signature creation device using a qualified certificate tied to a verified identity. Under eIDAS it has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature and every member state has to recognise it.
Legal termReviewed 7 October 2026
Inside the wallet, which belongs to the user and is under their control.
Issuer
Signs credentials: a member state, university, bank or employer
Issuance
EUDI Wallet
Belongs to the user, who decides what to share
Presentation
Relying party
The service that requests and checks the data
Trust layer: who is allowed to sign, and is it still valid?
Rules: the law and technical framework behind it all
eIDAS sets out three tiers. A simple electronic signature is any electronic indication of intent. An advanced one is uniquely linked to the signatory and detects later changes. A qualified one adds a qualified certificate and creation device, and only that tier gets automatic legal equivalence to wet ink.
QES used to need a smart card and a reader, which confined it to places where that hardware already existed. eIDAS 2.0 changes that by requiring wallets to support remote qualified signing, putting it on the phone people already carry.
Because the wallet also holds verified identity, the signature can be bound to an identity verified moments earlier rather than to an email address somebody typed in.
Defined in
eIDAS Regulation Art. 25; Regulation (EU) 2024/1183
For contracts and mandates, the tier decides whether you are relying on legal equivalence or on evidence you might have to argue for. QES on a phone makes the stronger tier workable at consumer scale.
