The Finance Ministers of the euro area countries are unanimous in recognising the benefits that a digital euro can bring, while being aware of the challenges that a single currency ‘Central Bank’ would pose in terms of financial stability, data protection and the fight against money laundering.
“It is absolutely clear that the design of and final decision upon issuing a digital euro is largely the responsibility of the European Central Bank. But, because the matter is of critical importance for finance ministers, we encourage the ECB to pursue its work in relation to models and options”, said Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe on Tuesday 3 November.
He promised that ministers would discuss this project, which is still at an early stage, “on a regular basis”.
The ECB is currently consulting stakeholders on whether to create a digital or virtual euro that would be legal tender as well as cash (see EUROPE 12581/21).
This project was launched after Europeans expressed their fears about private initiatives to set up cryptocurrency such as Facebook’s Libra.
See ECB report on the digital euro: https://bit.ly/3j2EneN (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)