Digital Euro Nears Reality: Key Takeaways from the ECB’s Third Progress Report

On 16 July 2025 the European Central Bank (ECB) released its Third Progress Report on the Digital Euro. The document covers the six-month window from November 2024 to April 2025 and shows that the two-year preparation phase (running until 31 October 2025) is firmly on schedule. Here’s a concise breakdown of the main take-aways, why they matter and what to watch next.

1. Preparation Phase Milestones

• Rulebook development keeps pace. The Rulebook Development Group (RDG) - 50+ experts from 30 organisations - has advanced draft rules on user experience, branding and risk management, supported by targeted workstreams and latency/dispute-management sessions.

• Provider selection is moving. Five tenders for the digital euro platform and infrastructure are being finalised, with framework agreements due by year-end 2025. These deals create no financial commitments yet but give the Eurosystem options to act quickly if the Governing Council decides to issue.

• Innovation platform gains traction. Roughly 70 market participants have tested features like conditional payments, exploring how the digital euro could integrate into existing payments rails while enhancing inclusion.

2. Putting Users First

• Inclusive design. An accessibility strategy is in place so the ECB’s reference app works for people with physical disabilities, low digital skills or learning difficulties. Consistent “user journeys” are being mapped to ensure that private PSP wallets offer the same intuitive feel as the ECB app.

• Offline resilience. Technical work is drilling into secure hardware, automated wallet funding and atomic transaction integrity so payments can continue during power or network outages - a must-have after recent disruptions across Europe.

3. Engagement & Policy Backing

• Market dialogues deepen. Under the Euro Retail Payments Board, separate tracks for PSPs, merchants and consumers reviewed value drivers such as competition, synergies and viable business models. Written feedback and workshops feed straight into the rulebook.

• Legislative support grows. The ECB supplies technical input on privacy, data-sharing and the use of digital euro outside the euro area while briefing the Eurogroup and the European Parliament’s ECON Committee. Heads of state endorsed faster progress at the 20 March 2025 Euro Summit.

4. What’s Next?

Between now and October 2025 the focus is on:

1. Completing tenders and starting vendor testing of the platform, including offline functionality.

2. Publishing a refined draft rulebook for broader interim review in H2 2025.

3. Running further experiments and user consultations to prove privacy, security and usability at scale.

If everything stays on track, the Governing Council will have the information it needs to decide in 2026 whether to launch a digital euro.

Read the ECB’s Third Progress Report on the Digital Euro.