The European Central Bank (ECB)’s ambition to adopt a digital Euro has cleared a key legal hurdle after being officially endorsed by the EU parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.

A digital Euro, a form of central bank digital currency (CBDC) pegged to the fiat Euro and issued by the central bank itself, has been explored by the ECB since 2020. The Committee adopted a resolution in favour of its introduction by 43 to 14, with one abstention.

Talks over its introduction have intensified since Donald Trump returned to the White House last year. In February 2025, ECB member Piero Cipollone told Reuters he hoped the president’s support for US dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies would add urgency to the central bank’s plan.

In January of this year, over 60 economists warned members of the European Parliament that without a CBDC the bloc risked “losing control” of its money and deepening its dependence on US payment providers.

The draft regulation says: "The introduction of the ⁠digital euro would [...] reduce overreliance on non-European providers by becoming a pan-European means of payment and would bring the single currency into the digital era by giving Union citizens the freedom to opt to pay with central bank money in their daily transactions.”

However, key opponents of the currency could still derail the ECB’s plans to have it approved by the end of the year. Reuters reported that Siegbert Frank Droese, a member of the far-right Europe of Sovereign nations political group in the European Parliament, said his bloc had voted against the proposal.

European banking lobbies have also fought to water down the proposal, with 14 large lenders including Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, and ING warning in November that it could undermine private-sector initiatives to rival US payment systems. Cipollone revealed in a February speech that the digital Euro’s rollout could cost banks between €4 and €6 billion over four years.

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