Piero Cipollone: Europe and monetary sovereignty
Speech by Mr Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome, 12 February 2026.
The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.
Preserving monetary sovereignty has been a key objective of our single currency. And as guardian of the euro, the European Central Bank (ECB) makes a key contribution to Europe's independence. But while money is one of the most advanced aspects of European integration, we cannot take our monetary sovereignty for granted in the face of today's geopolitical and technological developments.
In a world where external threats are growing and dependencies are used as leverage, it is becoming increasingly obvious that Europeans can no longer outsource core functions that are critical to their security and prosperity. This is specifically true for payments and finance, where I will argue that our dependencies have become excessive.
To put it simply: if we lose control of our money, we lose control of our economic destiny. And we surrender a key attribute of sovereignty.
Central banks are entrusted with issuing, on behalf of the sovereign, the only money that is legal tender. In the words of Jean Bodin, "only he who has the power to make law can regulate the coinage".