Here in Norway (and probably Sweden, too) BankID is a widely used authentication system, and most domestic services will use that as a auth / login. Only "drawback" is that it requires 2FA, which is quite trivial today. But there are still tons of users that want their "login with FB / Google / etc.".

And a last but: If using such auth systems, one would have to account for all the different systems unique to countries.

Maybe some larger EU-specific ID / auth system would make sense?

Sounds like the EU Digital Identity Wallet project: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/spaces/EU...

BankID is very convenient but the lock in is ridiculous. Owned by a private company and pretty much every service that you use depends on it. You're forced to own a new Google-approved Android or iPhone to use it and to function in society.

We definitely need a vendor independent ID system.

Many European countries have decent authentication, banking and payment system alternatives or even innovative solutions. I think, like usually, it's just a problem to break out of national or regional circles into something pan-European.

A lot of people seem to agree that relying on a handful of too powerful American companies, especially in the ad and social media space, is a terrible idea and running foul of privacy requirements. Remains to be seen if some larger alternatives manage to pop up though. The European landscape is pretty fragmented.