Cipollone: “The ECB is preparing to introduce the digital euro; we are awaiting the EU regulations”

Brussels – Digital euro: the European Central Bank is working flat out on it and is ready to launch it. Now, however, it is up to the EU institutions to adopt the necessary legislation, without which the whole endeavour will be in vain. Piero Cipollone, a member of the ECB Executive Board and head of the digital euro task force, makes it clear: politicians must not waste any time. “The Eurosystem is making progress with the technical preparations to ensure the introduction of a digital euro that works everywhere in the euro area and meets all usage requirements,” he stated during the hearing before the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic Affairs, where he added: “Only once the legislation has come into force will we consider the possible issuance of the digital euro, which would take place in full compliance with the regulations.” 

Cipollone’s words are no coincidence. The ECB has set itself a timetable with clear deadlines. In line with this work schedule, Parliament and the Council must approve all the necessary regulations by the end of this year. This is why the ECB member stresses the need to work at a political level to ensure the process is completed by 2026, and this need is emphasised in light of a competitiveness agenda recently approved by leaders that also includes the digital euro, and a Euro Summit that insists on speeding up the work.

 https://www.eunews.it/en/2025/09/26/digital-euro-for-sovereignty-and-competitiveness-advanced-testing-phase-set-for-2026/ 

Meanwhile, Cipollone goes on to announce, “‘Pontes’, the Eurosystem’s DLT solution, will launch in the third quarter of 2026.” We will therefore have to wait until at least July for the first trials of transactions via all-European payment networks that serve as alternatives to Visa and Mastercard.  Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is the solution that enables financial transactions and services to be conducted and managed electronically without intermediaries, ensuring security and traceability. These are the solutions on which the pan-European payment infrastructures—the cornerstone of the digital euro—will be based. 

Alongside practical and technological preparations, “social” action is also needed. As the member of the ECB Executive Board emphasises, “the digital euro must be accessible to everyone, including, of course, people with disabilities.” It is estimated that there are around 30 million visually impaired people in the EU, in addition to “more than one in five European citizens who do not feel comfortable using digital financial services.” The ECB and the EU, Cipollone points out, “must respond to the accessibility needs of these citizens” through measures, campaigns, and initiatives that policymakers are always called upon to develop and implement.