Already highly anticipated, European Union legislation to govern the privacy and distribution of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) will not see the light of day anytime soon. The EU has indeed suspended indefinitely the publication of its bill for the digital euro. A decision which follows the leaks of last week even if the official reasons remain unknown for the time being.
Important leaks concerning the digital euro project
The digital euro is not ready for launch. This is the key to remember from an analytical document published by the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs last April. The further suspension of the Digital Euro Bill by the decision-making body of the European Commission suggests that the EU’s position has not changed since then.
As a reminder, the examination of the bill was scheduled for the month of May before being finally postponed to June 28. A deadline now too short for the European Commission which has still not motivated this suspension. However, the decision to postpone the publication of this bill is less surprising if we consider the context in which it was taken.
Indeed, some details relating to the technical and privacy issues of the digital euro leaked last week. Coindesk reports that the initial legislative text planned to prohibit banks from paying interest on digital euros and merchants from charging for their use.
No new release date
Added to these leaks was a statement from eurozone finance ministers that suggested talks were still ongoing and presaged a delay. Pascal Donohoe, Ireland’s finance minister who chaired the talks at a meeting on Thursday, reports that his peers spoke of “the importance of developing a compelling and clear narrative on what the added value of this development would be” for the country. economy and the lives of citizens. He adds that ministers “want to support this work, but also see how they can develop this narrative further”.
For the time being, the European Commission has not given a new publication date for this bill. The expectation therefore continues for the supporters of the European CBDC, in particular for the ECB which recently recalled the relevance and the necessity of the digital euro.
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