In testimony to the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on November 10, ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone urged negotiators to finalise the Single Currency Package — the legal framework that would enable issuance of a digital euro and clarify the legal tender status of cash — by the end of 2026. “Without the legislation, the ECB cannot put a digital euro into circulation,” Cipollone told MEPs, adding that any delay in adoption could push a possible first issuance beyond 2029.
Why the rush matters
The ECB has been building technical readiness on the assumption that lawmakers will complete the regulation in time for a 2029 rollout. But Cipollone warned that continued legislative delays would not only jeopardise that timeline, they could also leave European payments increasingly dependent on non‑EU providers — a trend he highlighted by noting that roughly two‑thirds of online card payments in Italy already flow through non‑European schemes. Smaller merchants can face processing fees up to four times higher than larger players, he said, underlining the competitiveness and sovereignty stakes behind the digital‑euro push.
Legislative status and key provisions
The Council of the EU set its negotiating stance in December 2025, and the European Parliament approved its own negotiating position in July — a vote that included privacy protections, caps on individual digital‑euro holdings, and rules requiring businesses to accept the new payment option subject to exemptions. Parliament wants basic services such as account opening and payments to remain free for consumers and proposes limits on fees charged to merchants and payment providers. Negotiations between Parliament, the Council and the Commission have continued (another round occurred on November 5), but no final deal has been announced. Spanish EPP MEP Fernando Navarrete Rojas leads Parliament’s negotiating team.
Pilot, tests and parallel private initiatives
Despite legal uncertainty, the ECB is pressing ahead with practical testing. A 12‑month pilot using a beta version of the digital euro — without legal tender status — is scheduled to start in the second half of 2027. Participants will include ECB employees, staff from 19 national central banks, selected merchants and 36 payment service providers (chosen from more than 50 applicants). The pilot will test everyday use cases — cafeteria payments, person‑to‑person transfers and online purchases — while a separate innovation testing phase (January–June 2027) will probe conditional payments and potential AI integrations. The ECB opened another call for online and mobile merchants in September, aiming to announce selected businesses in early 2027.
Meanwhile, private market solutions are moving faster under the EU’s Markets in Crypto‑Assets Regulation (MiCA). In October, Qivalis — a consortium backed by 37 banks across 15 countries — won Dutch regulatory authorisation to operate as an electronic money institution and plans to issue a euro‑denominated stablecoin. Unlike the central bank’s currency, such tokens would represent private electronic money.
Infrastructure developments
The ECB is also building settlement rails for tokenised finance. Its Pontes platform, launched in September, started with 18 participating institutions and settled a €1 billion digitally native benchmark bond issued by the European Stability Mechanism on November 2 — using central bank money.
Bottom line: the ECB can keep building and testing technology, but without the Single Currency Package on the books, issuance remains legally blocked — and the 2029 target hangs in the balance.