The 2025 edition of the Smart City Expo World Congress kicked off on 4 November at Barcelona’s Fira Gran Via, drawing 25,000 delegates from 120 countries. While the show traditionally focuses on urban planning, this year’s headline theme — “Connected Mobility without Borders” — thrust global-mobility technologies into the spotlight.
Spanish start-ups showcased EU-funded pilots that link municipal digital-ID wallets with airport biometrics, allowing travellers to hop from metro to boarding gate without re-showing documents. The Catalan government confirmed that data from the pilot will feed into Spain’s broader Digital Identity Framework, due to be interoperable with Europe’s forthcoming EU Digital Identity (EUDI) wallet by 2026.
![Smart City Expo opens in Barcelona with cross-border digital ID high on the agenda]()
Corporate-relocation providers such as Cartus and Santa Fe Relocation held side events on how city-level digital IDs could streamline expatriate onboarding, from opening bank accounts to accessing public healthcare. Visa advisers, however, warned that Spain’s immigration law still requires physical NIE numbers, creating a “last-mile paper bottleneck” that tech alone cannot solve.
Aena told delegates it will extend facial-recognition boarding, already live in Menorca and Barajas T4, to Barcelona-El Prat in summer 2026. Analysts say the convergence of municipal mobility passes and state-level border biometrics could eventually let business travellers move through Spain using a single wallet app.
Spanish start-ups showcased EU-funded pilots that link municipal digital-ID wallets with airport biometrics, allowing travellers to hop from metro to boarding gate without re-showing documents. The Catalan government confirmed that data from the pilot will feed into Spain’s broader Digital Identity Framework, due to be interoperable with Europe’s forthcoming EU Digital Identity (EUDI) wallet by 2026.
Corporate-relocation providers such as Cartus and Santa Fe Relocation held side events on how city-level digital IDs could streamline expatriate onboarding, from opening bank accounts to accessing public healthcare. Visa advisers, however, warned that Spain’s immigration law still requires physical NIE numbers, creating a “last-mile paper bottleneck” that tech alone cannot solve.
Aena told delegates it will extend facial-recognition boarding, already live in Menorca and Barajas T4, to Barcelona-El Prat in summer 2026. Analysts say the convergence of municipal mobility passes and state-level border biometrics could eventually let business travellers move through Spain using a single wallet app.
