European Union entities, the European Commission, and the European Central Bank (ECB) will be coming together to discuss the potential challenges that come from the creation of the Central Bank Digital Currency, the Digital Euro.

Within a joint statement from both the Commission and European Central Bank, the aims of their effort were to explore its prospects for public and private sectors:

“The European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) are pursuing their efforts towards ensuring a strong and vibrant European digital finance sector and a well-integrated payments sector to respond to new payment needs in Europe.” The ECB will go on to decide whether the project will be put into motion in mid-2021.

“Such a project would answer key design and technical questions and provide the ECB with the necessary tools to stand ready to issue a digital euro if such a decision is taken,” the joint statement reads.

While the ECB officially closed its public consultation phase on January 12th, the news service EURACTIV, a news service centered on EU policy, found that 41% of polled respondents expressed serious concerns. Concerns regarding security (17%) and Pan-European reach (10%) also emerged.

While the European Union has entered the introductory stages of its CBDC, China's digital currency – the Digital Yuan – has already established itself as the powerful front-runner and sets its sights on a global payments framework based on CBDCs.

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