European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Piero Cipollone urged completion of EU negotiations so the Single Currency Package can be adopted by the end of 2026. Addressing the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, he reiterated the need for legislation covering both the digital euro and cash. Adoption is necessary to finalise the digital euro’s design and scheme rulebook, and a possible first issuance date can be set only after the regulation is adopted.
The ECB plans to make payments between individuals, online purchases and payments in shops technically available from first issuance. A gradual rollout in shops would give market participants time to adapt, with legislators intending to clarify its legal feasibility. The previously announced pilot remains scheduled to start in the second half of 2027, using a beta version without legal tender status to test functionality, operations and user experience. Participants will include Eurosystem staff, the 36 selected payment service providers and selected merchants. The selection of online and mobile merchants to test remote payments will be announced early in 2027. Separate innovation platform activities will run from January to June 2027, including conditional payment testing and exploration of artificial intelligence applications.
Alongside digital euro preparations, the ECB supports strong legislative provisions on mandatory cash acceptance, access to cash throughout the euro area and the resilience of cash infrastructure. Almost 10 million responses to the banknote design survey will inform the Governing Council’s choice of a final design concept, expected around the end of 2026. The survey results will be published then, with the first denominations of the new series expected to enter circulation in the early 2030s.