After several months of tough negotiations between the European Parliament’s political groups, MEPs on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) will vote, on Tuesday 23 June, on the draft reports by Fernando Navarrete (EPP, Spanish) on the ‘single currency’ package, which includes in particular the regulation establishing the digital euro.
Long sceptical about the project, the Christian Democrat rapporteur had still argued at the beginning of the year in favour of prioritising “private solutions” for digital payments rather than creating a European Central Bank digital currency.
The compromise amendments obtained by Agence Europe now show that a consensus has gradually emerged around a regulatory framework allowing the future issuance of this digital euro, for ‘online’ and ‘offline’ use, subject to several institutional and prudential safeguards.
The project’s main attributes have indeed been preserved. The ECON Committee’s draft text maintains the digital euro’s legal tender status, ensuring its acceptance across a large part of the economy. Basic services for individuals would remain free of charge, while several provisions are intended to prevent payment service providers from circumventing this free access through indirect charges or bundled offers.
In addition, the safeguards relating to privacy protection have also been strengthened, in particular to prevent the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks from establishing a direct link between transactions and users’ identities.
Merchants. As regards merchants, the applicable fees would be capped and subject to a “no worse-off principle”, intended to ensure that accepting the digital euro is no more costly than accepting comparable digital means of payment currently available on the market. The request by the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group to follow the “better-off” principle was not retained and no longer appears in the draft text (see EUROPE 13849/15).
Bank intermediation. More broadly, whereas the initial debates were largely dominated by questions relating to risks for the banking sector, provisions linked to monetary sovereignty, European strategic autonomy and the need to have a public payment infrastructure now occupy a central place in the European Parliament’s draft position.
“At some point Navarrete appears to have adjusted his position, likely in response to the evolving geopolitical landscape. From then on, the negotiations became significantly more constructive”, a source close to the negotiations recalled on Monday 22 June in an interview with Agence Europe.
“Banks still play a major role”, the source nevertheless said. According to the draft text, the negotiators have not called into question the intermediated architecture of the digital euro, which relies on payment service providers (‘PSPs’) and credit institutions for its distribution to the public, rather than on accounts administered directly by the Eurosystem.
The compromise nevertheless seeks to preserve a public-interest dimension. Access to the digital euro is presented as a financial inclusion tool and certain provisions target vulnerable people or those exposed to the risk of banking exclusion. MEPs also provide that each EU Member State must designate at least one public channel responsible for ensuring the distribution of the digital euro.
Holding limits. The sensitive question of holding limits has not been settled. The draft compromise provides that the overall limit will be set at a later stage by means of a delegated act of the European Commission, on the basis of a recommendation from the ECB.
“This means that it is still political institutions involved in the decision on what ceiling should be for wallets, even though this is a prudential issue and should be fully delegated to the prudential authority [the ECB, editor’s note]”, another source speaking on condition of anonymity regretted on Monday.
In September 2025, the Eurogroup had established a mechanism giving Member States a predominant role in deciding the holding limits for the future digital euro (see EUROPE 13713/7).
A vote endorsing the Parliament’s negotiating position is expected in plenary in July, after which interinstitutional negotiations (trilogue) may begin with the EU Council.
See the compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/mhf (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)