The digital euro would allow Europe to avoid depending on suppliers to make payments

The European Central Bank’s executive board member Piero Cipollone argued before the European Parliament on Monday that the digital euro would allow Europe to avoid depending on third-country providers for digital payments, the use of which is growing exponentially.

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“We need our own strong digital payments system. We can achieve this by bringing central bank money into the digital age with the introduction of a digital euro: a digital form of cash, issued by the central bank and available to everyone in the eurozone.“, said Cipollone at his first hearing with the Economic Affairs Committee of the new European Parliament following the June elections.

This digital euro, he added, would “strengthen Europe’s sovereignty and financial resilience” since it would be built on European infrastructure and technology, and would give Europe the power to independently develop and manage payment solutions.

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“Let’s travel to the year 2030. Imagine you are at the World Cup in Spain. You want to buy a drink, but you can only do so with Alipay. This scenario is not as far-fetched as it might seem: this summer, buying tickets for the European Championship in Germany was only possible with Chinese or American payment methods. Can you imagine this happening in the United States? (…) I can’t.“Cipollone said.

During his speech, the Italian stressed the current foreign dominance of the European payment market at a time when cash payments are losing popularity while digital payments are increasing as online shopping also increases.

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He noted that, Often, the only payment method accepted for these purchases is PayPal or another international card such as Visa or Mastercard, and more and more users are opting for digital wallets such as PayPal or Apple Pay on their mobile phones.platforms that are expected to manage “40% of digital commerce payments and 27% of in-store payments in Europe by 2027.”

Euro.

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At the same time, the number of businesses in the eurozone that do not accept cash has increased, leading to exclusion of older or less technologically savvy people, he added.

In this context, he argued that the digital euro would bring “tangible benefits” to consumers, businesses and banks.

The ECB began investigating the possibility of creating a digital euro in 2021 and is now in the full preparation phase, which will be completed in about a year. The ECB’s governing council will decide at the end of 2025 whether to move on to the next phase of the project, although it will not make any decision on issuing the digital euro until the European institutions have adopted the necessary legislation.

EFE