Retail CBDC

ECON Hearing on the Digital Euro

July 24, 2025

The 14 July ECON hearing was where the digital euro's institutional backers made their case in one room: Dombrovskis, Cipollone, and Berrigan all converged on the same message – this isn't about replacing private payments, it's about keeping a public option alive as cash usage keeps falling. Navarrete, the file's rapporteur, kept circling back to whether any of this is necessary at all, pointing to Sweden's Swish as proof a private-led system can work. Bartulica and Droese pushed from the other direction, worried about programmability and account freezes being used as tools of control. The answers stayed consistent – no state programmability, cash-like privacy offline, holding limits still under negotiation – and Cipollone put a number on patience: 2.5-3 years from legislation to a live product. The hearing confirmed the "why" has broad institutional agreement; the "how" is still very much being fought over.

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