The economic sovereignty that the euro guarantees to Europe could “be threatened” if Europe does not adopt the digital euro, believes the governor of the Banque de France.
Paris – “Launched more than 25 years ago, the euro represents Europe’s greatest step forward towards sovereignty and a huge popular success, supported by 82% of European citizens. But today, this hard‑won achievement could be threatened if we do not secure the pivotal role of +sovereign+ central bank money in the digital world,” François Villeroy de Galhau said on Tuesday.
The Eurosystem has already “taken steps to offer a digital euro to the general public” which aims to “issue a +digital banknote+ designed to transpose the characteristics of cash into the digital world, while preserving the anchoring role of central bank money,” he said at a conference in Paris.
Last month, “the Council of the European Union unanimously supported this project and agreed on a genuine digital euro covering both online and offline use cases.” After the expected vote in the European Parliament in May, a pilot project should be carried out as early as 2027 and the digital euro could be launched in 2029, according to the governor. (6 January 2026)
