Piero Cipollone of the ECB discusses progress on the digital euro, cash access, standards, and upcoming piloting exercises, emphasizing the importance of maintaining payment freedom across Europe.
Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), addressed the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament regarding the digital euro.
He highlighted the progress in negotiations on the Single Currency Package and emphasized the importance of ensuring access to cash, which remains a core function of the central bank. The ECB supports the legislative proposals that treat cash and digital euro as a single monetary system, reinforcing that they are different technologies of the same money.
The ECB is redesigning euro banknotes, with themes based on European culture or rivers and birds, to be issued in the early 2030s, featuring enhanced security and sustainability.
Regarding standards, the ECB has signed cooperation agreements with three European standard-setting organizations to promote open standards for the digital euro, reducing costs and increasing interoperability across the euro area. These standards will enable private payment solutions to expand and operate seamlessly.
Legislative progress is critical to provide legal certainty for these standards and to establish the digital euro’s legal tender status, enabling benefits to materialize and fostering payment autonomy.
The ECB is preparing for a pilot exercise, with applications from over 50 payment service providers (PSPs) received and under evaluation. Selected PSPs will begin development in the third quarter of 2023, with the pilot scheduled to start in the second half of 2027.
The ECB aims to complete the legal and technical preparations by January 1, 2027, marking the 25th anniversary of euro banknotes and coins, to demonstrate that cash and digital euro are two sides of the same coin, ensuring continued payment freedom in Europe.
For more information, visit the original announcement at the ECB website.
