In an update to the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Piero Cipollone outlined the Eurosystem’s ongoing technical preparations for a potential digital euro, reiterating that issuance would only be considered once the relevant legislation is in place and in full compliance with it. He also pointed to parallel work on wholesale market infrastructure, including the planned third quarter of 2026 launch of Pontes to enable central bank money settlement for distributed ledger technology (DLT) transactions and the publication of a roadmap for Appia to support an integrated European market for digital assets. The ECB described four strands of digital euro work: inclusion and accessibility by design, innovation with the private sector, integration with the existing European payments ecosystem, and piloting. On accessibility, the Eurosystem has signed a collaboration agreement with the ONCE Foundation to support the design and testing of the digital euro app, with features under exploration including adaptive user interfaces, voice commands, large-font displays, simplified workflows, and consumer support tools such as budget management. On innovation, follow-on work with industry will run through two workstreams: experimentation (including conditional payments, e-receipts, bill splitting, and an offline payments hackathon) and exploration (including business-to-business instruments, micropayments, artificial intelligence in payments and machine-to-machine use cases). On ecosystem fit, the Eurosystem is advancing discussions on co-badging with domestic payment schemes and developing common European standards via the digital euro rulebook, with an announcement on the European standards expected by summer 2026; standards are only to be finalised once the digital euro legislation is adopted. For piloting, the Eurosystem has opened a call for expression of interest for licensed payment service providers (PSPs), with applications assessed against eligibility requirements and weighted evaluation criteria. The application deadline is in May, selected PSPs are to be notified in June, and development is expected to start in the third quarter of 2026 to support a 12-month pilot beginning in the second half of 2027, testing person-to-person and person-to-business payments in a controlled environment, including online and offline activities at Eurosystem central bank premises. The ECB linked this to technical readiness for potentially issuing a digital euro as of 2029, based on a working assumption that the co-legislators adopt the Regulation during 2026, and stated that pilot outputs and documentation will be made available beyond participating PSPs.
European Central Bank 2026-03-24
European Central Bank sets digital euro pilot for second half of 2027 and plans standards announcement by summer 2026
ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone informed the European Parliament about the Eurosystem's preparations for a potential digital euro, stressing issuance will follow legislation. The ECB is advancing wholesale market infrastructure, launching Pontes for DLT transactions and planning Appia for digital assets. Four digital euro work strands were outlined: inclusion, innovation, ecosystem integration, and piloting, with a 2027 pilot planned to test payments in a controlled environment.