The European Central Bank (ECB) has called on European Union lawmakers to complete the legislation underpinning the digital euro before the end of 2026, framing timely passage as critical to the bloc's payment autonomy.

The appeal came from Piero Cipollone, a member of the ECB's executive board, in a speech delivered on Tuesday, November 10, to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament. The address, titled "Cash and the digital euro: two sides of the same coin," is available on the ECB's website. It arrived five days after Cipollone struck a calmer note at a card-industry conference on November 5, where he said the central bank was still on track to issue the currency in 2029. The digital euro at the center of the debate is conceived as a digital form of central bank money for everyday payments, the electronic counterpart to the cash referenced in the speech's title.

Cipollone told lawmakers that the uncertain geopolitical environment has made timely progress on the digital euro "essential to strengthen Europe's autonomy in payments."

From reassurance to warning in five days

Speaking at the eighth International Conference of Regional Card Schemes and Retail Financial Market Infrastructures on November 5 (keynote remarks), Cipollone said a 12-month pilot would begin in the second half of 2027. He repeated similar points before lawmakers on Tuesday, noting that preparations for the pilot are moving ahead.

"Starting in the second half of 2027, the pilot will involve Eurosystem staff, participating payment service providers (PSPs) and selected merchants offering everyday services – for example in canteens – at the ECB and participating national central banks," he said.

At the November 5 conference, Cipollone also maintained that issuance in 2029 remained possible, with one caveat: lawmakers must finish the law this year. He views the project as a remedy for a fragmented market in which 13 euro-area countries depend on non-European firms for in-store card payments.

When a European Parliament vote slipped in April from May 5 to June 23, Cipollone shrugged off the delay at a Peterson Institute discussion. "We have been patient for three years, it doesn't cost much to wait a couple more months," he said, adding that the 2029 timeline would hold as long as final legislation arrived by year-end.

The legislative clock is the whole story

The prospects for the 2029 target hinge largely on the pace of rulemaking. EU lawmakers are meant to finish the law in 2026 for the timeline to remain feasible, yet negotiations are still ongoing with roughly seven weeks left in the year.

Cipollone has said talks among the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission are underway and expected to conclude this year. Under the EU's ordinary legislative procedure, those three institutions negotiate directly on a single joint text, and reaching that agreement is the step that unlocks formal adoption of the law. The negotiations follow a June committee vote in which the Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee adopted its position by 43 votes to 14, with one abstention, setting demands on privacy, fees and holding limits.

Parliament rapporteur Fernando Navarrete Rojas said the digital euro would "complement cash, never replace it." The full Parliament later voted in July to open negotiations with member states.

Why Frankfurt keeps pointing at foreign card firms

The ECB's case rests on control of payment rails — the infrastructure that moves money from a payer's bank to a merchant's bank — and Cipollone frames the digital euro as a question of sovereignty. In an October interview, he said non-European companies govern two-thirds of card payments in the euro area.

"In recent years Europe has learned that, for some essential services, we cannot rely only on third parties. We saw this with energy, and we're seeing it today with defense. And the same is true for payments," he said. He added that sovereignty does not mean shutting outside firms out, only preserving the option to choose.

The ECB has also positioned the project against privately issued stablecoins. President Christine Lagarde has promoted the digital euro as an alternative to dollar-pegged tokens, warning that their spread could erode central banks' grip on monetary policy.

The planned pilot would run real transactions by ECB and national central bank staff, with 36 market operators taking part.

Source: Cryptopolitan