On Thursday 4 September, Spain’s Jonás Fernández, on behalf of the S&D group, and France’s Gilles Boyer, on behalf of the Renew Europe group, apologised to ECB representative Piero Cipollone for the delay in the European Parliament’s internal negotiations on the legislative texts intended to provide a legal basis for the introduction of the digital euro.
“Please provide us with a legislative framework”, pleaded Mr Cipollone, closing his fifth appearance before Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, the last of which took place in July (see EUROPE 13860/25). In his view, the ECB is “close to a tipping point”, because the preparatory phase of the digital euro ends in October, and “we have to decide what to do next”.
Mr Cipollone indicated that the Frankfurt-based monetary institute was working on the “assumption” that the EU legislator will adopt the legislative package on the table “in the second quarter of 2026”. It will then take a further two to three years to set up and operate the technological infrastructure the digital euro will be based on.
At the beginning of July, the Danish Presidency set the objective of reaching a compromise in the EU Council by the end of 2025 (see EUROPE 13676/22). To keep up with the pace of legislation, Parliament would have to make a decision by early 2026, said Mr Boyer.
On the substance, Mr Cipollone responded to the concerns expressed about the digital euro, starting with those of the EPP group. Spanish Christian Democrat Fernando Navarrete Rojas criticised the project for being “too complex” and costing private service providers dearly. “We think the project will not be loss-making”, retorted the central governor, pointing out that the cost of the infrastructure would be borne by the Eurosystem.
To Pierre Pimpie (PfE, French), who asked him who would set the ceiling for a portfolio containing digital euros, Mr Cipollone replied that it was up to the legislator to decide. The initial proposal gives this power to the ECB, but the Member States are currently discussing the issue, he pointed out.
Giovanni Crosetto (ECR, Italian) asked whether a private service provider could replace the role that the ECB would play in setting up the digital central bank currency. According to Mr Cipollone, the digital euro should not be seen as a public sector versus private sector project, but rather as a joint public/private effort designed to stimulate innovation and preserve privacy (especially in ‘offline’ mode).
See the ECB’s progress report on the digital euro: https://aeur.eu/f/ia2 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)