Cipollone: Euro essential for monetary sovereignty in digital era
Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, emphasized the euro's critical role in safeguarding monetary sovereignty amid digital and geopolitical shifts. Speaking at Sapienza University, he highlighted the need for European solutions in payments and finance.
Euro's resilience anchors sovereignty
Monetary sovereignty—control over central bank money—is a key attribute of modern statehood.
The euro, as a single currency, protects and strengthens this sovereignty, acting as an anchor for the financial system and ensuring price stability.
The euro's resilience has been proven through multiple crises, maintaining its position as the second most important currency globally, with a 20 percent share in international use, exceeding the euro area's weight in global GDP.
This share has grown steadily, and the euro has demonstrated a safe haven role during recent trade and geopolitical tensions.
A significant 82 percent of euro area citizens trust the currency, underscoring the responsibility to safeguard it against new challenges.
Closing the digital payment gap
Europe faces a major dependency in digital retail payments, relying heavily on non-European solutions.
International card schemes dominate two-thirds of euro area card transactions, with 13 out of 21 countries lacking a domestic scheme.
This situation risks the resilience of payment systems and could be used as leverage against Europe's interests.
To address this, the ECB is complementing physical cash with its digital equivalent, a digital euro.
Technical preparations are underway, with a pilot intended for 2027 and issuance in 2029, pending the digital euro Regulation's adoption.
This will provide a European public payment option, based on European technology and infrastructure, for all digital transactions across the euro area.
Tokenisation and global reach
The rapid evolution of digital finance demands proactive engagement to secure monetary sovereignty.
Failure to offer tokenised central bank money quickly risks building a new ecosystem outside the euro area, undermining control.
Expanding the euro's international reach through initiatives like TIPS links and the future digital euro is an imperative for Europe's economic independence.