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EU ministers seek agreement on digital euro to be independent of Visa and Mastercard
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EU ministers seek agreement on digital euro to be independent of Visa and Mastercard
Sep 20, 2025 11:33 PM

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Debate on digital euro goes back six years

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Some concerned about stability risk

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Spanish finance minister says quick progress needed

By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Jan Strupczewski

COPENHAGEN, Sept 19 (Reuters) - European Union finance

ministers will seek to reach a common position on Friday on how

to set up a digital euro currency that could become an

alternative to the now dominant U.S.-based Visa and Mastercard ( MA )

systems.

Discussions on creating a digital equivalent of the euro

currency, now used in 20 European countries, have been going on

for six years, but the debate heated up this year because the EU

is now keen to reduce its dependence on other countries in key

areas like energy, finance and defence.

"We need to go ahead with our own digital payment system to

reduce dependency on other providers," Spanish Finance Minister

Carlos Cuerpo told reporters on entering the ministers' talks in

Copenhagen.

"I think that's a key area of progress where we need to

advance and make progress quickly. And this is part of the

urgency that we've seen in ministries, in the political

environment, and this is driving also the agenda," he said.

DELAYS TO LEGISLATION

While there appears to be widespread support for the digital

euro on the political level, the European Parliament has not

passed the necessary legislation, arguing that some of the

details need more work.

Still, the ECB hopes that all legislation could be in place

in the first half of next year for the project to go ahead.

EU Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis also stressed

the need for Europe to have an independent payments system for

online shopping as more and more business moves to the internet.

"It's important to strengthen Europe's strategic autonomy,

to not have to rely on foreign payment schemes, having a proper

European, pan-European payment scheme," he said on Friday.

The ECB has presented plans for a digital currency -

essentially an online wallet guaranteed by the central bank - in

part as an electronic means of payment that does not rely on

dominant U.S. providers such as Visa, Mastercard ( MA ),

or PayPal ( PYPL ).

Some EU countries have their own national digital payments

systems, but none that would be accepted across the 27-nation

bloc.

Though the European Commission proposed digital euro

legislation in June 2023, not much has happened since. Some

lawmakers and bankers are concerned that the digital euro would

take away business from the banking sector and create stability

risks, like digital runs on banks.

Once Parliament approves legislation, the ECB will still

need around two-and-a-half to three years to actually launch the

digital euro.

"The ECB can provide the basic architecture on which the

private sector can then build the necessary solutions,"

Dombrovskis said.

"We see it as an important project, both in terms of

technological developments, but also in terms of EU strategic

autonomy," he said.

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