An alternative theory is that nobody is secretly scheming to do anything, least of all the chaotic EU apparatus, and that most politicians are not experts and they are simply responding to various competing stimuli, as humans do. Notably elections and media hype and lobbyists.

Yeah that's a very big possibility for the state of the EU, I'm not gonna deny it.

You’re right that Americans will find this crazy in the way that we Europeans might not. Perhaps Americans are right.

Yes, I've seen a TON of American propaganda and people flipping out about central / govt issued IDs, driving licenses and whatnot. I also know that most US states use still use rudimentary paper-only documents to identify citizens... I mean the situation is so bad that even Apple is trying to digitize them.

Meanwhile here in Europe most countries / people have smartcards (that in some cases combine multiple documents, like the actual ID, social security ID, tax number, driving license etc.) and are using it to login to govt websites and to sign documents. It's just crazy fun to see that in the US there are tons of companies offering ways to digitally sign documents in "a safe way" and even again, Apple, creating the means to scan a signature while here those things have little to no value and people are required to actually use their identity cards to sign docs. lol