“Historical day”. Future digital euro in the European Union with the first green light

At a meeting in Brussels today, this parliamentary committee gave 'green light' to its negotiating position on the creation of the digital euro, by 43 votes in favour, 14 against and one abstention, within the so-called single digital currency package, which consists of three legislative initiatives.

“It is an historic day for Europe,” said the chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Aurore Lalucq, after the vote.

In a statement released in the meantime, the European Parliament argues that the digital euro should be a “safe, private and free” payment available in both online and offline environments, offering citizens and companies “a private, safe and innovative way to pay”, while reducing the European Union’s dependence on external suppliers.

The digital euro is seen as a way to strengthen the EU’s financial sovereignty by reducing dependence on international payment networks – such as the US Visa and Mastercard – through a European public alternative to digital payments.

With regard to operation, the text provides for the digital euro to be issued by the European Central Bank (ECB) and to operate through an online payment account-based system, while ‘offline’ operations can be carried out directly between local devices, without the need for internet connection.

Privacy protection appears as one of the central elements of the proposal, proposing advanced technologies to validate transactions without exposing personal data.

The European Parliament also proposes limits to the amount of digital euro that each citizen could have in order to avoid negative impacts on the banking system and financial stability.

MEPs want these limits to be set by the European Commission on the basis of ECB recommendations and subject to regular review.

Companies, for their part, will not be able to maintain permanent balances in digital euro, except to accumulate payments received for a maximum period of 24 hours.

As for practical use, most companies will be obliged to accept digital euro payments, although exceptions are provided for self-employed and micro-enterprises who do not accept other digital means of payment.

Basic services associated with the digital euro, including account opening, fund management and provision of a payment instrument, should be free of charge to users.

After today's approval, the plenary session of the European Assembly and negotiations with the countries (in the Council of the European Union) follow before the final adoption of the legislation.