Members of the ECR groups - Michiel Hoogeveen (Dutch), Eugen Jurzyca (Slovak), Johan Van Overtveldt (Belgian), Dorien Rookmaker (Dutch), Anna Możdżanowska (Polish) - and Markus Ferber (EPP, German) announced on Wednesday 27 September that they had sent a letter to the European Central Bank (ECB) asking it to postpone its decision on a possible transition to the implementation phase of the digital euro until the conclusion of the European legislative process on the digital euro package (see EUROPE 13211/11, 13211/12).
These MEPs believe that several questions have not been answered satisfactorily, particularly during the hearings in the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13242/12, 13257/16), and should therefore be the subject of more extensive discussions.
These questions include the costs to retailers, the added value of a digital euro and the monetary and technological implications of the digital euro for the financial sector.
The signatory MEPs also stress that the digital euro project requires a high degree of democratic control and legitimacy, through public scrutiny. To this end, they call on the ECB to systematically provide the same information on the digital euro project to the EU Council and the European Parliament.
As an indication, the ECB announced that it would complete its investigation phase, which began in October 2021, in October 2023. Its Governing Council will then have to decide whether to move on to the implementation phase of the digital euro project.
It is only after this development phase and the conclusion of the legislative work in the EU Council and the European Parliament, which is a separate process from the ECB, that the Governing Council should take the decision whether or not to implement the digital euro.
Link to the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/8ra (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)