Mid-2029 A Fair Timeline For Digital Euro

The Digital Euro, the European Union’s long-standing planned central bank digital currency (CBDC) project, is facing delays and is expected to be released around mid-2029.

The EU’s digital euro could become a reality in 2029, Piero Cipollon, a member of the European Central Bank’s board, said at Bloomberg’s future financial event in Frankfurt on Tuesday.

“Mid-2029 could be a fair assessment,” he said, adding that the ECB is actively discussing the project at the EU member state level.

If correct, Cipollone’s timeline would show another delay in the digital euro despite extensive calls to launch the CBDC to protect European financial sovereignty within the US Stablecoin Push.

The European Parliament is continuing its progress

According to Cipollone, the European Parliament was the biggest obstacle to progress towards the digital euro as it had to pass legislation to advance the project.

“We need to arrive at a general approach called agreement between member states by the end of the year,” he said, adding that Parliament is likely to have a digital euro position by May 2026.

Cipollone’s ratings for the launch of European CBDC came shortly after the EU minister reached a “compromise” on the digital euro roadmap last week.

Related: EU lawmakers skeptical about the digital euro as the ECB updates the pitch

“The compromise we reached was before the ECB made a final decision in relation to issuance. […] The Irish Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Pascal Donohoe said at a press conference last Friday:

MEP reporting progress on October 24th

Cipollone expects the digital euro to not be released by mid-2029, but European authorities are preparing for the CBDC, with the ECB targeting October to decide whether to move into the next phase.

An ECB spokesman told the Cointelegraph on Wednesday that members of the European Parliament (MEP) will provide a progress report on the digital euro on October 24th.

Following the report, Cipollone reportedly reportedly will take six weeks to propose an amendment and five more months for discussion.

Digital Euro: 5 years

The Digital Euro Project, officially introduced by the ECB in October 2020, has emerged as one of Europe’s longest-debated financial initiatives.

In June 2023, the European Commission announced legal proposals for a potential digital euro, but progress within the European Parliament remains limited.

Meanwhile, the ECB is steadily moving forward with the project, completing the research phase in November 2023 and moving into the preparatory phase, which will be completed by October 2025.

Despite these steps, the initiative faces serious skepticism from banks, lawmakers, member states and end users, primarily due to concerns about CBDC privacy.

Globally, some central banks have been steering their own digital currency for years. For example, China launched its pilot digital euan wallet in early 2022. However, the digital novice slowly encountered adoption. Critics have described many CBDCs as expensive Fiat replicas rather than genuine fintech innovations.