Overview
- The European Parliament plenary authorised negotiators to begin trilogue talks on Thursday, allowing formal negotiations between Parliament, the European Commission and EU capitals to start this month.
- A key precursor came from the Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, which voted 43–14 with one abstention on June 23 to advance the digital euro package into trilogue.
- Negotiators are debating specific design safeguards that include caps on how much digital currency a person can hold, a rule that the digital euro will not pay interest, and a requirement that basic services be free to users.
- Institutions are aiming for a political agreement by the end of 2026, after which the ECB plans a pilot with selected payment providers in mid to late 2027 and has signalled a possible public roll‑out around 2029.
- The project is pitched as a way to reduce reliance on non‑EU payment rails and it will pressure private euro stablecoins and payment firms, while opponents warn about surveillance risks and banks worry about integration costs and deposit flows.