The European Parliament has put the digital euro back on the legislative track after three years of near standstill. Meeting in Strasbourg on July 9, 2026, MEPs voted 416 to 169 to endorse the position their Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) adopted in late June. The vote clears the way for trilogue negotiations with the Council and the Commission, starting this summer.
The European Central Bank’s own work never slowed. Three days before the vote, on July 6, it published a new version (v0.91) of its draft technical and operational rulebook, together with its sixth progress report on the scheme. The ECB is aiming for a pilot in 2027 and a launch in 2029.
The framework on the table
- A retail central bank digital currency (CBDC): a direct claim on the ECB and the digital equivalent of a banknote.
- Intermediated distribution: commercial banks and payment service providers onboard users and provide wallets and customer support, while the ECB runs the settlement infrastructure.
- Use cases covering online, in-store and person-to-person payments, plus an offline mode with cash-like privacy.
- A holding limit per person. The ECB will set the amount later, using a methodology laid down in the regulation. It is the most contested point in the text.
- Free basic services for consumers, and an acceptance obligation for merchants that already take digital payments, with exemptions for the smallest businesses.
Rulebook v0.91 fills in the payments architecture
The July 6 draft takes on board a significant share of the feedback from the 2025 consultation of banks, merchants, consumer groups and payment providers. It clarifies the payments architecture: message schemes, the respective roles of the Eurosystem and intermediaries, and the rules for settlement and dispute handling. That brings the project closer to a level of detail that PSP implementation teams can build against. Acquirers and terminal vendors, who will have to make the digital euro work at the point of sale, are now explicitly part of the process.
Five issues will shape the trilogue
- The holding limit: banks fear deposit flight in a crisis, and the amounts floated so far are deliberately low, at a few thousand euros.
- Compensation for distributors: if basic services are free for users, who pays for onboarding, support and compliance?
- Merchant fees: the regulation caps them, and the exact formula pits retailers against banks.
- Privacy: how anonymous the offline mode will be, and what safeguards will rule out programmable money.
- Coexistence with private solutions: keeping the digital euro from crowding out Wero and the domestic schemes it is supposed to complement.
Still, the signal to the industry is clear: a live digital euro before the end of the decade is once again the base case. Acquirers, payment acceptance vendors and bank back offices should start building that deadline into their 2027–2029 roadmaps now.