Digital euro

A Digital Euro, is the project of the European Central Bank (ECB), decided in July 2021, for the possible introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The aim is to develop a fast and secure electronic payment instrument that would complement the Euro for individuals and businesses in its existing form as cash and in bank accounts, and would be issued by the European System of Central Banks of the Eurozone.

After concluding a two-year investigation into the design and distribution models for a digital euro, the ECB decided on October 18, 2023 to enter the preparation phase, which involves tasks such as finalizing the rulebook and selecting providers to develop the required platform and infrastructure, setting the stage for the potential issuance of a digital euro.

Arguments and motivations for introducing a digital euro
Arguments and motives for the introduction of a digital euro are, according to the ECB:
 * Maintain the role of central bank money as a monetary anchor for the payment system.
 * Provide free digital access to a secure legal tender in the Eurozone
 * Expanding payment options through alternative central bank money alongside cash and book money in commercial bank accounts, contributing to availability and inclusion
 * Building trust in digital cash through a high level of privacy protection
 * Promote innovation in retail payments
 * Limiting the spread of foreign digital currencies to safeguard the financial stability and monetary sovereignty of the Eurozone
 * Programmability would allow targeted incentives to encourage social responsibility and discourage antisocial spending
 * Wealth redistribution and social aid would be greatly simplified.

In addition to these motives, the possibility of a further decline in the use of cash as a means of payment plays a role in the discussion on the digital euro.

Criticism and risks of the digital euro

 * Increased centralisation and central planning of monetary policy
 * Loss of privacy
 * Risk of financial censorship and loss of human rights
 * Hacking and information security issues
 * Higher risks of loss of central bank independence and political influence on monetary policy
 * Potential for much faster transmission of bad monetary policy
 * Risks to banking system of bank runs towards CBDC
 * Distribution fairness issues (Cantillon effect)
 * Higher political control of individual spending and saving
 * Weakened Property Rights

Christine Lagarde has publicly addressed some of these risks, but critics regard her answers as insufficient. Critics point to the digital Renminbi CBDC and how it has experimented with many of the right-restricting features (including geo-fencing, geo-tracking, amount limits, time limits, etc). They also point to the e-naira and venezuelan Petro and their monetary policy issues. Similarly de-banking issues and financial censorship have been on the rise in recent years, critics fear that a centrally planned, centrally controlled and managed system would have the potential for a much higher level of censorship and discrimination by authorities.

The prototype developed by the ECB as part of the investigation phase includes conditional payments, this points to the potential for programmability of the digital euro and thus similar risks to individual rights as in the digital renminbi.

According to the Human Rights Foundation, CBDCs risk imposing sweeping financial surveillance, restriction of financial activity, frozen funds, seizure of funds, negative interest rates, tools for corruption, cyberattack risks and disruptions to financial stability.

Preparations for the possible introduction of a digital euro
On October 2, 2020, the ECB published a report outlining the introduction of a digital euro from the perspective of the Eurosystem. Since 2020, several projects have been launched in collaboration with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to test the issuance, control and transfer of central bank digital currency, as well as securities tokens and smart contracts on a blockchain.

2021
Following preliminary planning and the presentation of the results of a public consultation in early 2021, the ECB decided in July 2021 to launch a digital euro project to prepare for the possible introduction of a digital euro. No technical barriers were identified during the preliminary planning. The research, which is scheduled to run until autumn 2023, aims to shed light on the distribution to merchants and citizens, the impact on markets and the necessary European legislation. No preliminary decision has therefore been taken on the introduction of the digital euro.

2022
In September 2022, the ECB announces a collaboration with five companies (Amazon, CaixaBank, Worldline, EPI and Nexi) to develop potential user interfaces for the digital euro.

Burkhard Balz, a member of the Bundesbank's Executive Board, sees the digital euro not least as a means of strengthening European sovereignty in payments. In his view, the digital euro could be designed to support programmable payments in a highly automated environment.

The first "Progress on the investigation phase of a digital euro" report was published by the ECB in September 2022.

Speaking at the conference "Towards a legislative framework enabling a digital euro for citizens and businesses" held in Brussels in early November 2022, Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, reiterated that the digital euro is not a stand-alone project limited to the area of payments. Rather, it is a cross-policy and truly European initiative that has the potential to have an impact on society as a whole.

In December 2022, the ECB published the second progress report on the investigation phase.

2023
In January 2023, the ECB invited experts in the field of payments/finance to express their interest in contributing to the development of a set of rules for the digital euro.

At the end of May 2023, the ECB published the results of a market research and prototyping project. The market research had shown that there was a sufficiently large pool of European vendors capable of developing digital euro solutions. It had also shown that different types of architectural and technological design options were available to develop a technical solution for a digital euro. The prototyping project involved the integration of five user interfaces developed by different vendors for each use case (front-end prototypes) and a settlement system designed and developed by the Eurosystem (back-end prototype). Different design options were tested to determine whether they could be technically implemented and integrated into the Eurosystem's settlement system. The tests showed that it would be possible to integrate a digital euro smoothly into the existing payment landscape, while leaving room for the market to use innovative features and technologies in the dissemination of a digital euro. The results also confirmed that, in principle, a digital euro could function both online and offline using different technical concepts. The question remains whether an offline solution that meets the Eurosystem's requirements and achieves the necessary scale can be implemented in the short to medium term using existing technology.

On 18th October 2023 the ECB announced that a decision had been made to move forward with preparation phase, including a public pilot and aiming for a possible launch by 2025-2026.

Views on the possible introduction of a digital euro
The Governing Council will make a decision by the end of 2025 on whether to proceed to the next stage of planning for a digital euro.

The Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (Public German Consumer Protection Organisation) sees the digital euro as a public good and thus an opportunity to make digital payments more consumer-oriented.

The German Informatics Society (GI) sees the introduction of a digital euro and the simultaneous decline of cash as a threat to informational self-determination and privacy; there is a danger of the "Gläserner Mensch" (German metaphor for data protection, representing the complete "screening" of people and their behavior by a monitoring state, which is perceived as negative).

German Banking industry
From the perspective of the German Banking Industry Committee, the global trend toward central bank digital currency is unmistakable and represents both an opportunity and a challenge. The planned introduction of a digital euro is seen as an important contribution to the digitalization of the economy and society and to securing Europe's sovereignty and competitiveness. The digital money ecosystem proposed in a policy paper is intended to go beyond digital cash and consists of three elements:
 * Retail CBDC for personal use
 * Wholesale CBDC for banks and savings banks
 * Giral money tokens for industrial use

The Association of German Banks supports the introduction of a digital euro. In a position paper published in February 2023, the private banks emphasize the evolution of cash, their role in its issuance, its openness to innovation, and their desire to minimize the risks of its introduction. Among the risks, the private banks specifically mention those affecting their business (disintermediation, diminishing returns, weakening of their customer relationship) and that a weakening of their investment capabilities could lead to the failure of the digital euro.

The Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken (BdV) welcomes the ECB's plans for a digital euro, but criticizes that the needs of the economy for a future digital payment method have not yet been sufficiently taken into account.

German Industrial sector
In a position paper published at the end of September 2022, the Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie (BDI, Federation of German Industries) warns that the needs of the industry must be taken into account when introducing a digital euro. The programmability of payments is a key demand.

Eurogroup
For Paschal Donohoe, president of the Eurogroup, a body of finance ministers from euro member states, the digital euro project is about maintaining the link between citizens and central bank money: as central bank money, the digital euro would be convertible one-to-one into euro banknotes.

Unlike the industry, the Eurogroup does not want the digital euro to be equipped with additional functions.

European Commission
In June 2023, the European Commission proposed in a draft regulation on the introduction of the digital euro that a digital euro should be made available as a legal tender not only to banks, but above all to the general public. The Commission wants to design the processing of digital euro transactions in such a way that neither the European Central Bank nor the national central banks can attribute data to an identified or identifiable digital euro user.