It may need to be in some way decetralized though, even if some kind of certification authority needs to be in some coherent trust chain.

It makes me think of inrupt solid, although it’s not quite the same.

Also I seem to remember some dutch (or used in there) online idenity management infrastructure which allows to make some authorithative claims without getting entire identity revealed. Sadly I can not find it now.

*and the rest of Europe

I thought this is an example where standards in part converged naturally. But I agree that regulation was fundamental part of this process.

Phone and laptop chargers converged from numerous standards to just a few all on their own I think, no?