Anyone who has recently opened a bank account, rented a flat or signed up to a new service knows the routine. Photograph your identity document. Upload proof of address. Enter the same information again. Then wait for it to be verified. Try the same in another Member State and the process can become even more cumbersome.
This is not merely an irritation or a privacy issue. It weighs on European economies through abandoned transactions, duplicated verification costs, slow onboarding, fraud losses and cross-border friction that a single market is supposed to have removed.
