In his draft report on a future European regulation on the legal tender value of euro notes and coins, presented as part of the ‘single currency package’, European Parliament rapporteur Fernando Navarrete Rojas (EPP, Spanish) stressed the need to preserve universal acceptance and access to cash. The text is designed as a sort of symbolic safeguard against the potential introduction of a future European digital currency.
Mr Navarrete Rojas believes that euro notes and coins should retain their status as legal tender, guaranteeing their acceptance and availability “in proportion with citizens’ demand”.
However, the rapporteur introduces the possibility of adequate exceptions to the mandatory acceptance of euro cash payments, in particular where refusal is justified by a legitimate reason.
Mr Navarrete Rojas emphasised the complementary nature of cash and a future digital euro, arguing that the two proposals for regulations in the ‘single currency package’ must be closely coordinated to avoid any perception of substitution between the physical and digital forms of money.
In his other draft report on a supplementary regulation proposed by the European Commission to establish a legal framework for the introduction of the digital euro, Mr Navarrete Rojas proposes that the introduction of the digital euro should begin with an offline version, designed to replicate cash-like features, before any online deployment (see EUROPE 13743/11).
See the draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/j9w (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)