European Central Bank outlines digital euro model with mandatory acceptance, offline payments and earliest issuance in 2029

In an interview, European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone set out the case and core design elements for a digital euro, positioning it as a cash-like form of public money for digital payments that would be usable across the euro area and free for basic use. The concept includes a requirement that any retailer already accepting digital payments would also accept the digital euro, with the Eurosystem providing the infrastructure and aiming to reduce merchant fees, while cash would remain available and adoption would not be mandatory. Holdings would be kept either on Eurosystem servers or locally on a smartphone or a dedicated card bearing a digital euro logo; only funds loaded for offline use would sit on the device, making loss comparable to losing a physical wallet, with the option to block the device or card. The interview also distinguished “conditional payments” as payer- and payee-controlled automation such as recurring transfers or automated refunds, rejecting the idea of programmable restrictions on spending; the Eurosystem would not track individual monetary units, recording only transaction amounts and encrypted payer and payee codes, and offline payments would not be recorded and would not be visible to the user’s bank. Cipollone framed the project as supporting European payments autonomy given reliance on international card schemes for cross-border and online use, and argued that a common standard and infrastructure could help European private payment solutions such as Wero scale across the euro area. A pilot exercise is expected to start in 2027, with issuance anticipated no earlier than 2029; implementation could begin once the relevant law and rules are in place, with digital euro standards made available to retailers and providers ahead of issuance.