European Commission Launches Consultation for Digital Euro

The European Commission has launched a consultation for its digital euro, asking payment and financial services specialists to provide feedback in terms of the needs and expectations of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), privacy and data protection, and other areas of the euro’s digital currency.

This is based on the Commission’s official announcement on April 5, and the consultation will run from April 5 to June 14. The Commission is calling on payment experts, credit institutions, merchants and their associations, payment solution developers, consumer associations, retail payments regulators, anti-money laundering regulators and other relevant experts to provide feedback on the digital euro, urging payments and financial services experts to focus on the needs and expectations of CBDC, privacy and data protection and other aspects of digital currency in Europe.

User needs and expectations for the digital euro are also areas where the Commission is seeking feedback. Europe is quite advanced in digital payment technology, with countries such as Norway and Finland having the highest debit card penetration rate in the world at 98%. This may reduce the need for the digital euro.

European Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni stated: “A completely anonymous digital euro is not desirable.” Although Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, who chairs such meetings, added, “A risk-based approach could be followed allowing for more privacy for lower risky and smaller transactions and vice versa.”