ECB’s Panetta Reinforces Digital Euro Focus on Payments

Fabio Panetta is a member of European Central Bank’s executive board. He announced that research on the digital euro, an initiative to digitize Europe’s fiat currency was nearing its end. One of the main goals of this project would be to make it a universal method of payment.

Panetta stated that the European Union does not have a single digital payment method. Panetta stated:

We are investigating technical solutions to enable easy digital euro payments anywhere in the Euro area.

He also declared that legislators could give the digital euro legal tender status, which would make all merchants who accept digital payments obligated to accept them. It would also allow payment processors and banks to reduce their dependence on third-party providers, which could lead to the creation of a “truly European” new platform.

Payment Sovereignty & Structural Design

Christine Lagarde explained the supposed importance of this project for the structure and autonomy of European payments when she said that the digital Euro was a ‘key’. Lagarde stressed at the time that many payment options used by Europeans like cards and applications were not necessarily based in Europe.

Panetta spoke about the ideal conditions that the digital Euro should meet if it is launched. He said:

The digital euro should be available to all people in the Eurozone, regardless of the intermediary or country that they use to access it.

Panetta said that the next phase would include testing and developing technical solutions related to the digital Euro, as well working with the European Commission on legislative proposals.