“Strengthening the resilience of payments in Europe has become a geopolitical necessity,” Markus Ferber, senior member of the ECON committee, said on Tuesday.
“In a world marked by geopolitical tensions, we can no longer accept that digital payments depend largely on the goodwill of a few foreign providers,” he added, echoing concerns expressed across the EU.
The new rules voted on by the ECON committee have paved the way for the ECB to introduce online and offline versions of the currency by 2029. Crucially, the offline version will allow users to exchange digital euros directly from phone to phone without an internet connection, ensuring cash-like privacy that prevents the ECB from seeing what citizens are buying.
Commercial banks have successfully lobbied for strict holding limits on the amount a citizen can keep in a digital wallet to avoid a mass exodus of money from traditional accounts in a crisis.
The ECB will now undertake a 12-month pilot phase using a beta version to test the infrastructure in real-world scenarios with selected merchants and payment service providers.
“The euro should work in your pocket and on your phone,” Ferber summarized.
