On Wednesday 5 November, Fernando Navarrete (EPP, Spanish), European Parliament’s rapporteur for the legislative proposals on establishing the regulatory framework for a future digital euro, presented his draft text (see EUROPE 13743/11) to members of Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON).
Displaying a “nuanced” position, Fernando Navarrete argued in favour of prioritising market-based solutions in order to strengthen European payment sovereignty and reduce excessive dependence on non-European providers - an objective central to the ‘single currency’ legislative package, which introduces a digital euro issued by the European Central Bank (ECB).
“The ECB should step in only where there is market failure”, he said, arguing that the ‘online’ digital euro presents several risks, such as bank disintermediation, massive deposit withdrawals, direct competition with private systems and threats to data confidentiality. According to Mr Navarrete, the ‘offline’ version made it possible to meet the objectives of proportionality, competitiveness, stability and sovereignty.
“This is not about being for or against the digital euro. It is about making it fit for purpose (...) It does not seek to force private solutions to succeed. Nor does it assume that they will inevitably fail”, he said.
The left wing of the House challenged the draft report’s position. While Stephen Nikola Bartulica (ECR, Croatian) considers the draft text “a very good basis”, the negotiator, Nikos Papandreou (S&D, Greek), believes the text is on the wrong track.
“This report asks us to wait longer. It’s almost 2026. (...) It’s asking us [...] to wait for the private sector to come up with a solution. But what does the private sector have? [...] Is there an organised group proposing a Europe-wide payment scheme, a ‘roadmap’ with milestones, or a consortium ready to invest billions? None exist”, regretted the Greek MEP. “The issue is not online payments. The issue is online digital payments, the ones that can compete and provide the commercial sector with [an alternative] to the big payment systems”, he stressed.
Damian Boeselager (Greens/EFA, German) also felt that the key challenge lay in creating a truly sovereign public digital payment system.
Gaetano Pedullà (The Left, Italian) announced that his group would amend the text “to make the digital euro an effective, virtual access, public form of digital money.”. As it stands, Mr Navarrete’s report “would benefit dominant non-European solutions, which will continue to exploit their advantageous position and delay our ability to achieve strategic autonomy”, he deplored. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)