Piero Cipollone: Europe's money evolves so people's freedom to pay remains
Introductory statement by Mr Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, at the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament, Brussels, 3 June 2026.
I am pleased to be back here again to discuss the digital euro.
I am encouraged by the good progress being made on the Single Currency Package negotiations by the ECON Committee, and I look forward to the European Parliament adopting its position on this important initiative in the near future.
Today I will start by addressing the important issue of ensuring access to cash, which you emphasised a few months ago in your resolution on the ECB Annual Report. I will then focus on two key updates on the digital euro project since our last meeting in March: first, the agreements we have signed with European standard-setting bodies and, second, further preparations for next year's piloting exercise.
Strengthening people's freedom to use cash
Ensuring that people remain free to use cash is at the core of our work as a central bank.
We therefore welcome the fact that the legislative proposals for the legal tender of cash and for the digital euro have been treated as a single package. This reinforces the notion that euro cash and digital euro are the same money – they just use different technologies.
We strongly support the proposal on the legal tender of cash as it safeguards its acceptance and availability and finally aligns cash policies across the euro area.