ECB official does not rule out scrapping the digital euro rollout

The European Parliament could thwart the ECB‘s issuance of a national digital currency. This was stated by Fabio Panetta, a member of the regulator’s Executive Board, according to CoinDesk.

The official noted growing doubts about the value CBDC among lawmakers.

“The rollout of the digital euro requires a political decision. In this case the ECB will respond. … If this call to halt is made at the political level — through the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, I do not see any chance that the regulator will implement the initiative on its own,” Panetta commented.

The member urged lawmakers to pass new laws codifying CBDC’s status as a means of payment. He cited a central bank study showing that citizens regard the ability to pay anywhere as the most important feature of the national digital currency.

“We want to be sure that under any circumstances we will have a system that would allow all residents anywhere to pay safely and efficiently with the lowest costs,” he explained.

According to Panetta, the ECB is studying a way to provide access to the instrument for about 5% of the population who do not have or do not wish to have a bank account, including conducting KYC-checks through post offices, online or through other intermediaries.

The initiative to issue the digital euro emerged в ноябре 2019 года. In October 2020 the ECB published всеобъемлющий отчет on this topic. 

In May 2022, Fabio Panetta, a member of the ECB’s Executive Board, signaled a CBDC rollout by 2026 with an issuance cap of 1.5 trillion.

In July 2021 the research phase of the digital euro began, which was to last until September 2023. It was expected that by that time the regulator would decide on the viability of issuing CBDC.

In November 2022, Christine Lagarde, the regulator’s head, said that the digital euro would eliminate the risks to financial sovereignty.