The European Central Bank wants the digital euro law agreed within weeks. Piero Cipollone, the ECB Executive Board member in charge of the project, told the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) in Brussels on Tuesday 10 November 2026 that the trilogue talks should end quickly so the Single Currency Package can be adopted by the end of the year. Missing it would cost time, he said in his introductory statement: “A delay in adoption could instead postpone the introduction of the digital euro.”
It was his first appearance before the committee since Parliament voted its position in plenary on 9 July. He gave no year for a launch: a date for a possible first issuance, he said, can be set only once the Regulation is adopted. The new material is elsewhere. Online and mobile merchants for the pilot will be chosen early in 2027, shops may get the digital euro in phases, and Pontes, the ECB’s link between blockchains and central bank money, has settled its first bond.
The ECB’s year-end deadline for the digital euro law
The end-of-2026 target is not new: Christine Lagarde named it in her 17 October statement to the IMF’s steering committee. What changed on Tuesday is the audience and the warning. Cipollone was speaking to the MEPs who will have to vote on whatever the negotiators agree, and he set out what a slip would cost. The digital euro would come later. Europe would lean even more on foreign payment providers, and its own companies would find it harder to innovate and compete.
He tied the deadline to the One Europe, One Market Roadmap, the joint work plan of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission. Adoption by the end of the year, he said, would give the ECB the legal certainty to finish its preparations and give the market certainty about the planned date of a first issuance.
The package is wider than the digital euro. It also carries the proposal on the legal tender of euro cash, the text that covers whether shops must accept notes and coins. Cipollone used part of his statement to back strong rules on mandatory cash acceptance, on access to cash across the euro area and on the resilience of cash infrastructure.
Where the trilogue stands
The Council adopted its negotiating mandate on 19 December 2025. Parliament followed on 9 July 2026, and the first political trilogue, the three-way talks between Parliament, Council and Commission, was scheduled for 13 July, according to a Freshfields analysis published on 15 July. The law firm listed the gaps the two sides had to close: who sets the holding limit, whether companies may hold digital euro at all, how long a transitional fee model for payment providers may last, how merchant fees are capped, and what offline payments cost.
Cipollone’s introductory statement gave no update on those points and no date for the next round of talks, and no trilogue outcome has been announced since July. A deal in trilogue is also not the end of the road: the agreed text still needs a formal vote in Parliament and approval by the Council before it becomes law.
When will the digital euro start? The speech gives no year
Tuesday’s statement contains no launch year. The year 2029 comes from the ECB’s digital euro pilot page, where the ECB says it aims to be ready for a potential first issuance during 2029, assuming the Regulation is adopted in 2026.
That is why the deadline matters. The 2029 readiness target rests on a 2026 law. If the law slips into 2027, there is still no date to fix, and Cipollone told MEPs the introduction itself could be pushed back. He also said the law is needed to finalise the digital euro’s design and its Rulebook, the common set of rules for the banks and payment firms that will offer it.
There is a change of leadership in the middle of this calendar. Lagarde leaves the ECB on 7 February 2027, as Coindaro reported on 29 October, so a new president will chair the Governing Council when any issuance decision is taken.
The steps left, from the trilogue to the till
Cipollone’s statement and the ECB’s pilot page give this order of events. Anything after the law depends on it being adopted on time.
| When | Step | Source |
|---|---|---|
| End of 2026 | Target for adopting the Single Currency Package after the trilogue | Cipollone, 10 Nov |
| Around end of 2026 | Governing Council picks the final design concept for new euro banknotes | Cipollone, 10 Nov |
| Early 2027 | Final selection of pilot merchants announced | Cipollone, 10 Nov; ECB pilot page |
| January to June 2027 | Next wave of the innovation platform: conditional payments, AI in payments | Cipollone, 10 Nov |
| Second half of 2027 | Pilot starts with a beta version, for 12 months | Cipollone, 10 Nov; ECB pilot page |
| During 2029 | ECB aims to be ready for a potential first issuance, if the law passes in 2026 | ECB pilot page |
A pilot in canteens, and merchants still to be chosen
The pilot will test the technical functions, the operations and the user experience of a beta version that has no legal tender status. Eurosystem staff, the participating payment service providers (PSPs) and selected merchants will take part, with canteens at the ECB and national central banks as Cipollone’s example of an everyday service. The 36 PSPs chosen in July include banks and non-bank providers, he said; seven of them applied from Italy, as our report on Cipollone’s Milano Finanza interview noted.
In September the ECB opened an extra call for online and mobile merchants, so that the pilot can also test remote payments. The final selection will be announced early next year, Cipollone said; the ECB’s pilot page says applications are being screened.
A phased rollout in shops
The most concrete new element concerns the launch itself. The ECB plans to make person-to-person, e-commerce and point-of-sale payments technically available from the first day of issuance. Payment firms and merchants want time. Their feedback, discussed at the Euro Retail Payments Board on 13 October, “shows that a gradual rollout would support a smooth and successful first issuance”, Cipollone said.
He added that the co-legislators intend to give legal clarity on whether such a phased rollout in shops is possible. So the law may decide whether shop acceptance arrives in steps rather than everywhere on day one. How long a phase would last, he did not say.
Alongside the pilot, the ECB’s innovation platform launched a new call for expressions of interest in September. Its next wave, from January to June 2027, will test conditional payments, which are released only when a set condition is met, and look at uses of artificial intelligence in payments. Electronic receipts are also on the ECB’s list of features to try.
Pontes already settles tokenised bonds in central bank money
The part of the ECB’s work that does not wait for any law is wholesale. Pontes, launched on 21 September, connects market blockchain platforms (distributed ledger technology, or DLT) with the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services, so that tokenised trades between institutions can be paid in central bank money. Cipollone told MEPs that 18 market participants and market DLT operators were onboarded on day one. Pontes “makes the settlement of tokenised transactions in central bank money an operational reality”, he said.
His proof was a bond. On 2 November Pontes settled the European Stability Mechanism’s first digitally native benchmark bond, worth €1 billion, according to the statement. The Bundesbank had announced the deal on 26 October: it acted as issuing and paying agent, Clearstream ran the bond on its D7 platform as the Pontes market DLT operator, with delivery against payment, and DZ BANK and Société Générale advised. The bond is expected to be listed in Luxembourg and to be eligible as collateral for Eurosystem lending.
Ledger Insights reported on 27 October that the bond pays a 3.375% coupon, matures on 8 April 2030 and drew €2.2 billion of orders. Investors receive it in Clearstream’s usual system, so they need no blockchain set-up of their own to hold it, the outlet said. Pontes is a separate project from the retail digital euro, and its longer-term plan, Appia, is covered in our piece on the ECB’s Appia consultation.
What it means for users in France and Italy
For now, nothing changes in anyone’s wallet. There is no digital euro to hold, buy or receive, and the 2027 pilot is a closed test for central bank staff, the 36 selected providers and the merchants still to be chosen. The future Regulation will apply in the same way in France, Italy and the rest of the euro area; there is no national version.
Two points matter for everyday payments. The cash side of the package, which Cipollone backed, deals with whether shops must keep accepting notes and coins, so a delay in the trilogue also delays those rules. And if the law allows a phased rollout in shops, paying with digital euro at a French or Italian till could come later than paying a friend or an online shop.
For crypto users the speech draws a line. Tokenised settlement in central bank money is running between institutions through Pontes. A retail digital euro is not, and its timetable now depends on how fast MEPs and ministers close the remaining gaps. The statement does not mention stablecoins or MiCA.
Cash itself is getting a redesign. Almost 10 million people answered the ECB survey on ten shortlisted banknote designs, built on the themes “European culture” and “Rivers and birds”. The Governing Council is expected to choose a final concept around the end of the year; the first new notes should reach wallets in the early 2030s.
Next dates to watch
Cipollone is due to speak at the Singapore FinTech Festival on Friday 20 November. The trilogue has until the end of December to meet the ECB’s target. Cipollone said he hopes a strong legal framework, covering both cash acceptance and a digital form of cash, will be in place by the 25th anniversary of euro notes and coins in January 2027.