[TomK32]

You have to identify youself somehow. I mean this is Germany, not the UK where you collect utility bills to justify your existence /s.

In Germany as German you are obliged to have a valid identification document and as EU citizen just the same in case you are being asked for it. Wikipedia hast the links to the relevant laws https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ausweispflicht#Deutschland

[expertentipp]

Why you're immediately teasing UK? They are exception in this regard. I'm talking about national IDs which most other EU (all but UK?) countries are issuing. Yet SCHUFA clearly demands passport in their instructions. In 6 different languages, 4 of which are official languages of the EU.

[guitarbill]

Maybe because they opted to scrap ID cards for stupid, vague reasons such as "reducing bureaucracy" and "civil liberties". Meanwhile, the de-facto method of ID is a driving license (which is useless for travel), or the national insurance number (similar to a social security number in the US) + other stupid forms of "ID" such as utility bills are used instead ubiquitously. The problem with the NIN (like the SSN) is that it is assigned once per person, cannot be changed, has severe consequences if stolen for identity theft reasons, and, oh yeah, it isn't identification because it has no picture, yet somehow every terrible company or bank needs it. Utility bills are even easier to fake or procure.

The farcical reason to scrap them comes from a government who's police force holds a large percentage of their population's faces - who are innocent - in a huge database and refuses to delete them. So yeah, it's dumb on all levels. Tease away at those muppets.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/27/theresa-may...

[expertentipp]

Well at least the decent, law-abiding people have their power handed back to them:)... how come IBM is always involved... public IT project? IBM is already there, granted. They are Google/Facebook for public sector, i.e. they manage personal profiles (in fact very sensitive data) on behalf of authorities in too many countries across the world.

[TomK32]

Because passports are the international standard, issued under international guidelines while identity cards aren't.

[hocuspocus]

The international standard is completely irrelevant here. The parent poster specifically mentioned the case of EU citizens.

As a EU citizen you can settle in Germany without owning a passport. It's not up to private companies to redefine what consists in a recognized official form of identification.

[germanier]

EU national identity cards are issues under EU guidelines and recognized by the authorities of all member states.