Digital euro legislation
The digital euro needs an EU regulation before the ECB can issue it. The Commission proposed one in June 2023, the Council and the European Parliament have each adopted a negotiating position, and the final text is negotiated between them. Dated events on payments and digital money are in the calendar below.
The Commission proposal
The proposal COM(2023) 369 of June 28, 2023 sets the legal frame. The digital euro would be legal tender with mandatory acceptance at face value and a ban on surcharges (Article 7). Small businesses that accept no comparable digital payment and private persons would be exempt (Article 9). The ECB would develop holding limits, and the digital euro would bear no interest (Article 16).
Basic services would be free for private persons, and merchant fees could not exceed the lower of two amounts: the providers' costs plus a reasonable profit, or the fees for comparable digital payments (Article 17). Article 24 allows conditional payments and rules out programmable money. Articles 34 to 37 set the privacy rules, including the rule that offline transaction data is not retained.
Council and Parliament positions
The Council agreed its negotiating position on the digital euro and on the legal tender of euro cash in December 2025. In the European Parliament the economic and monetary affairs committee adopted the report of rapporteur Fernando Navarrete Rojas in June 2026, by 43 votes to 14 with one abstention. After a challenge by two groups, the plenary confirmed the mandate in July 2026 by 416 votes to 169 with 22 abstentions.
According to the Parliament press release, its position keeps the digital euro online and offline, strengthens privacy, exempts the self-employed and small firms that take no other digital payments from acceptance, keeps basic services free and caps individual holdings. Providers from EU countries outside the euro area could distribute it, and businesses would not be allowed to ban cash.
What happens next
Parliament and Council now negotiate the final text in trilogue, with Navarrete Rojas leading for the Parliament. The ECB says it can issue the digital euro from 2029 if the legal basis is adopted by the end of 2026, and it has chosen 36 providers for a pilot from the second half of 2027, described on the digital euro app.
The technical rules sit in a second layer: the digital euro rulebook, which the ECB drafts with market participants. For German banks the regulation decides the business case, through the compensation model and the holding limit. Digital euro in Germany covers the German view.
Upcoming payments events in Germany
Has the digital euro law been passed?
Not yet. The Council and the European Parliament have adopted their negotiating positions, and the two institutions negotiate the final regulation in trilogue.
Who is the rapporteur for the digital euro in the European Parliament?
Fernando Navarrete Rojas, a Spanish member of the EPP group. He wrote the committee report and leads the Parliament's negotiating team.
What is the single currency package?
The single currency package is the set of proposals the Commission presented on June 28, 2023. It includes the digital euro regulation, a regulation on the legal tender of euro banknotes and coins, and a regulation on digital euro services by providers outside the euro area.
Digital euro legislation and Finance Loop
Finance Loop follows the digital euro regulation in its Payments & Digital Money and Risk & Compliance tracks. Finance Loop is a strategic partner of the Digital Euro Association, host of the Digital Euro Conference in Frankfurt, where lawmakers and central bankers discuss the regulation.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.