The European Central Bank (ECB) has set October 2025 as the deadline to launch its Central Bank Digital Current (CBDC). Bank president Christine Lagarde disclosed this at a press conference on March 6 when asked about Europe’s plan for a Digital Euro.
The question was whether Europe had a unique opportunity to gain pioneer status with its Digital Euro after President Donald Trump signed an executive order preventing the US Federal Reserve from creating a digital dollar.
Lagarde explained that the ECB has been working on the digital Euro for more than five years now, starting from her predecessor time, and the plan now is to finalize the work by October 2025. She added that Europe will proceed with the plan to introduce the digital Euro despite the US changing its stance on CBDC.
She said:
“(The ECB is) focused on accelerating the pace and hopefully campaigning enough with all the stakeholders so that we can eventually, not put to bed, but put to reality this digital euro. The deadline for us is going to be October 2025 and we are getting ready for that deadline.”
However, she also noted that the October 2025 date could be tentative as the ECB is not the only one involved. Whether Europe adopts a CBDC depends on other stakeholders which are the European Parliament, European Commission, and European Council.
Until these stakeholders vote and decide on the matter, the digital Euro will remain an experimental idea.
ECB President says CBDC is crucial for Europe
Meanwhile, Lagarde is pushing to introduce the digital Euro, which she considers very important for the continent. In her response, she noted that Europe needs the digital Euro to function at the wholesale and retail levels.
She said:
“I think it is critically important, and for the agnostics or the skeptics, it now seem more relevant and more imperative than ever before, both on the wholesale and on the retail level.”
Lagarde comments are unsurprising as they reflect the general view of the ECB. While the US under Trump is pushing for the adoption of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, experts at the ECB believe its CBDC is the way to go and consider the US crypto efforts to be a net positive.
ECB board member Pedro Cipollone told Reuters earlier this year that the Trump crypto executive order will push customers to embrace digital assets and away from traditional banks. He considers this a good time for the ECB to issue its digital Euro.
The European digital Euro has been in the works for several years, with preparations already passing 50% in December 2024. While the government has said that it would complement cash and will not affect lenders, various stakeholders, including privacy experts and financial institutions, have expressed concerns about its potential impact.
Some of these concerns come from the crypto community, where many point to the potential risks of CBDCs, such as how they could affect financial freedom and privacy. These concerns were among the major reasons for the pushback against CBDC in the US.
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