Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to report parliamentary committee draft

DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

▸9 unchanged paragraphs

on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of the digital euro

(COM(2023)0369 – C90219/2023 – 2023/0212(COD))

(Ordinary legislative procedure: first reading)

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2023)0369),

– having regard to Article 294(2) and Article 133 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C90219/2023),

– having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank of 31 October 2023,

– having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee,

Changed– having regard to Rules 59 andRule 4160 of its Rules of Procedure,

▸5 unchanged paragraphs

– having regard to the opinion of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs,

– having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (A90000/2024),

1. Adopts its position at first reading hereinafter set out;

2. Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it replaces, substantially amends or intends to substantially amend its proposal;

3. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

Change 1

RemovedTitle 1: on the establishment of the Digital Euro / [This amendment applies throughout the text. Adopting it will necessitate corresponding changes throughout]

AddedRecital 1: (1) The Commission emphasised in the Digital Finance and Retail Payment Strategies of September 2020 that a digital euro, as a retail central bank digital currency, would act as a catalyst for innovation in payments, finance and commerce in the context of ongoing efforts to reduce the fragmentation of the Union retail payments market. Since then, the policy debate, digital payment market landscape and technical work have evolved significantly. A digital euro should be assessed against clearly defined problems and compared with the best available market alternatives, in line with necessity, proportionality and opportunity-cost tests.

RemovedRecital 3: (3) Central bank money in the form of banknotes and coins cannot be used for online payments. Today, online payment solutions only allow access to commercial bank money. The acceptability and fungibility of commercial bank money rely on its convertibility on a one-to-one basis to central bank money with legal tender, which serves as a monetary anchor. That monetary anchor is at the core of the functioning of monetary and financial systems. It underpins users’ confidence in commercial bank money and in the euro as a currency and is therefore essential to safeguard the stability of the monetary system in a digitalised economy and society. As central bank money in physical form alone cannot address the needs of a rapidly digitalising economy, this could gradually remove the monetary anchor for commercial bank money. It is therefore necessary to introduce a new form of official currency with legal tender which is risk free and helps visualise the convertibility at par of the money issued by various commercial banks.

AddedRecital 2: (2) On 2 October 2020, the European Central Bank published its “Report on a digital euro”. The report formed the basis for seeking views on the benefits and challenges of issuing a digital euro and on its possible design, including both online and offline digital forms. Since then the European Central Bank has moved into a preparation phase, starting on 1 November 2023, focused on the elaboration of the rulebook, provider selection, testing and experimentation. Subsequent analyses and international experience indicate that major advanced economies have not committed to retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) but rather to wholesale central bank digital currency projects.

RemovedRecital 4: (4) To address the need of a rapidly digitalising economy, the Digital Euro should support a variety of use cases of retail payments. Those use cases include person to person, person to business, person to government, business to person, business to business, business to government, government to person, government to business, and government to government payments given their importance now and in the future. In addition, emerging use cases will be monitored with a view to potential coverage in subsequent releases. In particular machine to machine payment in the context of Industry 4.0 and payments in the decentralised internet (web3). These payment trends should be monitored by taking into account that private sector in the Union is best placed to develop solutions in this regard. The Digital Euro should not cater for payments between financial intermediaries, payment service providers and other market participants (referred to as wholesale payments), for which settlement systems in central bank money exist. For these payments, and with a view to the competitiveness of the Euro in the global context, the Eurosystem should explore the use of different technologies.

AddedRecital 3: deleted

RemovedRecital 5: (5) In a context where cash alone cannot answer the needs of a digitalised economy, it is essential to support financial inclusion by ensuring universal, affordable and easy access to the Digital Euro to individuals in the euro area, as well as its wide acceptance in payments. Financial exclusion in the digitalised economy is addressed by a set of legal obligations in a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on payment services in the internal market to ensure that private digital means of payments specifically cater for vulnerable groups of the society. According to the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements, “efficient, accessible and safe retail payment systems and services are critical for greater financial inclusion”24. That finding was further substantiated by the study on new Digital Payment Methods commissioned by the European Central Bank, which concluded that for the unbanked/underbanked/offline population, the most important features of a payment method are easiness of use, not requiring technological skills, and to be secure and free of charge25. A Digital Euro should be designed along these objectives, thus catering for free access, easiness of use and wide accessibility and acceptance. Additionally, a dedicated payment solution offered by the public sector in combination with designated authorities offering Digital Euro services would support the financial inclusion of unbanked citizens.

AddedRecital 3 a (new): (3a) To address the increasing challenges to the Union economy and the Union´s strategic sovereignty, the Union payments infrastructure should aim to reduce dependence on non-European providers and ensure that citizens and businesses have secure, efficient and accessible options for making their daily payments. In its Communication on a Retail Payments Strategy for the EU of 24 September 2020, the Commission emphasised the importance of promoting competitive pan-European payment solutions of European origin, in order to help consolidate The Union’s economic and financial sovereignty and reduce market fragmentation.

RemovedRecital 8 a (new): (8a) With a view to ensuring a clear separation between the monetary, supervisory and payment systems oversight tasks, and the Digital Euro tasks of the European Central Bank, a dedicated unit for Digital Euro should be established within the European Central Bank that is independent in terms of accounting, organisation, and decision-making processes.

AddedRecital 3 b (new): (3b) The introduction of an offline digital euro would offer a twofold solution: it would reduce overreliance on non-European providers by becoming a pan-European means of payment and would bring the single currency into the digital era by giving Union citizens the option of paying with central bank money in their daily digital transactions. As envisaged in this Regulation, the absence of a central infrastructure for settling offline digital euro transactions makes it inherently privacy-friendly, since such payments need not be routed through or recorded on a central infrastructure. Moreover, by replicating cash-like features, such as the bearer style or the absence of digital euro accounts, the offline digital euro would significantly reduce financial stability risks. This Regulation should therefore enable the strengthening of interoperability and competitive neutrality rather than displace already efficient market solutions.

RemovedRecital 9: (9) Like euro banknotes and coins, the Digital Euro should be a direct liability of the European Central Bank or of the national central banks of the Member States whose currency is the euro towards Digital Euro users. The Digital Euro should be issued for an amount equal to the face value of the corresponding liability on the consolidated balance sheet of the European Central Bank and the national central banks of the Member States whose currency is the euro, in particular by converting payment service providers’ central bank reserves into Digital Euro holdings, to satisfy demand from Digital Euro users. To hold and use Digital Euros, Digital Euro users should only need to establish a contractual relationship with payment service providers distributing the Digital Euro to open Digital Euro wallets. No account or other contractual relationship would be established between the Digital Euro user and the European Central Bank or the national central banks. Payment service providers should manage the Digital Euro wallets of Digital Euro users on their behalf and provide them with Digital Euro payment services. Since payment service providers are not a party to the direct liability held by Digital Euro users towards the European Central Bank and the national central banks of the Member States whose currency is the euro, and are acting on behalf of Digital Euro users, the insolvency of payment service providers would not affect Digital Euro users.

AddedRecital 3 c (new): (3c) Existing European retail private payment initiatives in a significant number of Member States are widely adopted in their national markets and satisfy a large part of the current needs for the Union economy and the Union´s strategic sovereignty, without posing financial stability risks. It is of the utmost importance that such initiatives are enhanced to become pan-European in scope .

RemovedRecital 16: (16) The Digital Euro, as a digital currency with the status of legal tender denominated in euro issued by the European Central Bank and national central banks of the Member States whose currency is the euro, as part of the Eurosystem, should be widely accessible, usable and accepted as a means of payment. Granting legal tender status to the Digital Euro should support its usability in payments across the euro area and thus also support the efforts to ensure the continued availability and accessibility of central bank money in its role of monetary anchor, as cash alone cannot address the needs of a rapidly digitalising economy. In addition, the mandatory acceptance of payments in Digital Euro as one of the main conditions of the legal tender status ensures that people and businesses benefit from a wide acceptance and have a real choice to pay with central bank money in a digital way and in a reliable and consistent manner throughout the euro area.

AddedRecital 4: (4) To address the challenges that the Union payments market is currently facing, the European digital payment retail solutions should address a variety of use cases of retail payments based on consumers’ demands, needs and habits and preferences. Those use cases may include a variety such as person to person, person to business, person to government, business to person, business to business, business to government, government to person, government to business or government to government payments.

RemovedRecital 21: (21) The main objective of the establishment of the Digital Euro is its use as a form of the single currency with legal tender in the euro area. For this purpose and in line with the Agreement on the European Economic Area, Digital Euro users residing or established in the euro area, including consumers with no fixed address, asylum seekers and consumers who are not granted a residence permit but whose expulsion is impossible for legal or factual reasons, may be provided Digital Euro payment services by PSPs established in the European Economic Area. Natural and legal persons who were already receiving Digital Euro payment services, because they opened a Digital Euro wallet at the time they resided or were established in a Member State whose currency is the euro, but no longer reside or are established in such Member State, may still receive Digital Euro payment services by payment service providers established in the European Economic Area, in line with the Agreement on the European Economic Area, subject to possible time limitations in relation to the status of residence or establishment of these persons that the European Central Bank may define.

AddedRecital 5: (5) In a context where cash alone cannot answer the needs of a digitalised economy, it is essential to support financial inclusion by ensuring universal, affordable and easy access to pan-European sovereign retail payment solutions to individuals in the euro area, as well as its wide acceptance in payments. Financial exclusion in the digitalised economy may increase as vulnerable groups of the society may not have access to digital payment solutions in some rural or remote areas without a (stable) communication network. According to the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements, “efficient, accessible and safe retail payment systems and services are critical for greater financial inclusion”.24 That finding was further substantiated by the study on new Digital Payment Methods commissioned by the European Central Bank, which concluded that for the unbanked/underbanked/offline population, the most important features of a new payment method are easiness of use, not requiring technological skills, and to be secure and free of charge.25 Free access, easiness of use and wide accessibility and acceptance of offline digital euro solutions should be offered to grant financial inclusion.

RemovedRecital 23: (23) Digital Euro wallets are a category of payment accounts denominated in euro through which Digital Euro users are able to carry out inter alia the following transactions: place funds, withdraw cash and execute and receive payment transactions to and from third parties, irrespective of the technology used and the structure of the ledger or of the data (e.g. whether Digital Euros are recorded as holding balances or units of value). Where these activities require processing of personal data, the payment service providers should be controllers.

AddedRecital 6: (6) The digital euro should complement euro banknotes and coins and should not replace the physical forms of the single currency. As legal tender instruments, both cash and digital euro are equally important. Regulation (EU).../...+, Directive (EU) .../...++, Regulation (EU) .../...+++ and, with regard to instant transfers in euros, Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council1a and Regulation (EU) 2021/1230 of the European Parliament and of the Council2a and Directive 98/26/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council3a and Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council4a , will strengthen both physical central bank money and retail digital payment solutions. Regulation (EU) .../...++++ would harmonise legal tender for cash and ensure that cash is widely distributed and effectively used. / + OJ: Please insert in the text the number of the Regulation contained in document PE-CONS ../.. (2023/0208(COD)) and insert the number, date, title and OJ reference of that Regulation in the footnote. / ++ OJ: Please insert in the text the number of the Regulation contained in document PE-CONS ../.. (2023/0209(COD)) and insert the number, date, title and OJ reference of that Regulation in the footnote. / +++ OJ: Please insert in the text the number of the Regulation contained in document PE-CONS ../.. (2023/0210(COD)) and insert the number, date, title and OJ reference of that Regulation in the footnote. / 1a Regulation (EU) No 260/…

RemovedRecital 25: (25) For the purpose of properly enforcing any holding limits on the use of the Digital Euro decided upon by the European Central Bank, when on-boarding Digital Euro users, or during ex-post checks where appropriate, payment service providers in charge of distributing the Digital Euro should verify whether their prospective or existing customer already has Digital Euro wallets. The European Central Bank may support payment service providers in performing the task of enforcing any holding limits, including by establishing alone or jointly with national central banks a single access point of Digital Euro user identifiers and the related Digital Euro holding limits. The European Central Bank should implement appropriate technical and organisational measures, including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures, to ensure that the identity of individual Digital Euro users cannot be linked with the information in the single access point by entities other than payment service providers whose client or potential customer is the Digital Euro user. The European Central Bank should be controller to the extent that these activities require processing of personal data. When the European Central Bank establishes the single access point together with the national central banks, they should be joint controllers.

AddedRecital 7: (7) Future developments in digital payments and geopolitical challenges may affect the role of the euro in retail payment markets both in the Union and internationally. Many central banks around the world have explored the issuance of CBDCs. However, most of the jurisdictions have focused their initial efforts and resources in the wholesale CBDC projects rather than in retail CBDC projects.

RemovedRecital 26: (26) To support universal access to the Digital Euro by the general public in the euro area, and to foster innovation and a high level of competition in the retail payment market, all the relevant intermediaries should be able to distribute the Digital Euro. All account servicing payment service providers under Directive 2015/2366, including credit institutions, electronic money institutions, payment institutions, post office giro institutions which are entitled under national law to provide payment services, the European Central Bank and national central banks of Member States whose currency is the euro, as part of the Eurosystem, when not acting in their capacity as monetary authority or other public authorities, and Member States or their regional or local authorities when not acting in their capacity as public authorities should be able to provide Digital Euro wallets and the related Digital Euro payment services, regardless of their location in the European Economic Area. Crypto asset services providers regulated under Regulation 2023/1114 of the European Parliament and of the Council29 that are account servicing payment service providers under Directive 2015/2366 should also be allowed to distribute the Digital Euro. In accordance with Directive 2015/2366, account servicing payment service providers should be obliged to provide access to data on payment accounts to payment initiation and account information service providers based on Application Programming Interfaces (…

AddedRecital 7 a (new): (7a) Without prejudice to the current framework for a retail digital euro, the Union should prioritise the development and cross-border interoperability of wholesale CBDC arrangements, including tokenised central-bank money for the settlement of securities and large-value payments. Wholesale CBDC can enhance the Union’s financial system by enabling safer and faster delivery-versus-payment (DvP) and payment-versus-payment (PvP), improving intraday liquidity efficiency, including auto-collateralisation, extending operating hours, and strengthening operational resilience. By supporting the settlement of tokenised assets under clear legal finality and common standards, and by facilitating cross-border settlement links with partner central banks, wholesale CBDC can foster deeper and more competitive Union capital markets, reduce reliance on non-European infrastructures, and contribute to the Union’s open strategic autonomy, while remaining technology-neutral and fully consistent with monetary policy implementation and financial stability.

RemovedRecital 28: (28) A requirement to distribute the Digital Euro should be proportionate to the objective of ensuring an effective use of the Digital Euro as a legal tender means of payment. Restricting that obligation to credit institutions that are already active in retail business services would ensure the effectiveness of legal tender status, while avoiding putting a disproportionate burden on payment service providers with specialised, non-consumer oriented business models. The obligation to distribute the Digital Euro is therefore limited to credit institutions providing payment account services at the request of their clients. This is without prejudice to the application of Chapter IV of the Payment Account Directive on access to payment account with basic features to the access to Digital Euro wallet with basic features to consumers which are not client of a credit institution.

AddedRecital 8: (8) To address the Union’s structural over-reliance on non-European payment providers and to safeguard the euro’s monetary sovereignty and open strategic autonomy in the digital age, it is therefore necessary for this Regulation to lay down a legal framework for establishing the offline digital euro, its legal tender status, distribution, use, essential technical features and the framework for the establishment of an online digital euro.

RemovedRecital 29: (29) To ensure a wide usage of the Digital Euro, including for people who do not have a non-Digital Euro payment account, do not wish to open a Digital Euro wallet at a credit institution or at another payment service providers that may distribute the Digital Euro, or persons with disabilities, functional limitations or limited digital skills, and elderly persons, it is essential that public entities, including local or regional authorities, or postal offices, distribute the Digital Euro. For that purpose, Member States should designate entities that should carry out that task within their territory. Such entities, as payment services providers under Directive (EU) 2015/2366, should comply with the provisions of this Regulation, including Directive (EU) 2015/2366 and Directive (EU) 2015/849.

AddedRecital 8 a (new): (8a) It is considered necessary that the establishment of the digital euro initially starts with the offline digital euro, since its use would strengthen the resilience of the payment system in extraordinary situations, reduce overdependence on payment solutions and technologies under the ultimate control of third countries or entities from third countries and preserve citizens’ privacy concerns.

RemovedRecital 30: (30) To enable a wide usage of the Digital Euro and keep pace with innovation in digital payments, Digital Euro payment services should include basic and additional Digital Euro payment services. Basic Digital Euro payment services are payment, wallet or support services that are considered essential for the use of the Digital Euro by natural persons. This includes inter alia the provision of at least one payment instrument to natural persons. Only account servicing payment service providers under Directive 2015/2366 should provide the entire set of basic Digital Euro services. In addition to these basic Digital Euro payment services, account servicing payment service providers and other payment service providers under Directive 2015/2366 may develop and provide additional Digital Euro payment services. Additional Digital Euro payment services include for instance conditional Digital Euro payment transactions like pay-per-use or payment initiation services. The Digital Euro infrastructure should facilitate the deployment of such optional services.

AddedRecital 8 b (new): (8b) In order to ensure necessity, proportionality and market competitiveness, the establishment of the online digital euro should be contingent on the absence of a pan-European sovereign retail payment solution covering person-to-person, point-of-interaction and e-commerce use cases in the euro-area. The Commission should be entrusted with the task of assessing if a pan-European sovereign retail payment solution exists in the euro area and providing such an assessment in a report to the European Parliament and the Council within six months of the European Central Bank having notified the completion of the preparatory work to issue the offline digital euro. If the Commission assesses that no pan-European sovereign retail payment solution is available to citizens at that point in time, it should prepare and adopt, within six months of submitting report, a delegated act with the purpose of supplementing this Regulation to confirm the lack of such a solution, thus meeting the condition for the establishment of the online digital euro. This conditionality aims to avoid crowding out scalable private solutions, focuses public intervention on genuine market failures, and supports the Union’s open strategic autonomy by prioritising public-governed payment solutions only where effective private alternatives do not exist. This procedure does not interfere with preparatory work to be conducted by the European Central Bank on the technical and organisational tasks for the issue of the di…

RemovedRecital 36: (36) The Digital Euro should allow for a smooth payment experience. Any instruments that the European Central Bank might employ to limit the Digital Euro’s store of value function should take this objective into account. Automated mechanisms that link a Digital Euro wallet with a non-Digital Euro payment account should allow for an uninhibited payment functionality of the Digital Euro, by ensuring that transactions are successfully executed in the presence of individual Digital Euro holding limits that may become binding on the payer’s or payee’s side. In particular, Digital Euro users should be able to initiate a Digital Euro payment transaction even though the amount of their Digital Euro holdings is inferior to the amount of the transaction, by automatically mobilising funds from a non-Digital Euro payment account to complement the transaction amount (‘reverse waterfall functionality’). Conversely, Digital Euro users should be able to receive Digital Euro payment transactions even though the amount of the transaction exceeds the limit set on their Digital Euro holdings, by automatically transferring funds in excess of the limit to a non-Digital Euro payment account (‘waterfall functionality’). Such payment functionalities should be expressly authorized by Digital Euro users. Where Digital Euro wallet held by one payment service provider is linked with non-Digital Euro payment account held by another payment service provider, they should enter into an arrangement specifying…

AddedRecital 8 c (new): (8c) A roll-out phase should be established for both the offline digital euro and the online digital euro, from the moment when the European Central Bank decides on its issuance, in order to enable the different actors involved to adapt to the obligations entailed by the issuance of the digital euro, similar to what has been established for other legislative initiatives in the field of payments and to ensure a secure, resilient and gradual adaptation by the Eurosystem and digital euro users.

RemovedRecital 39: (39) Any limits to the store of value function that the European Central Bank decided on should be binding on and implemented by the payment service providers distributing the Digital Euro. While natural or legal persons may have one or more Digital Euro wallets at the same payment service provider or at different payment service providers, they should be subject to an individual holding limit that a Digital Euro user may allocate across different payment services providers. Payment service providers may offer Digital Euro users the possibility to legally have a joint Digital Euro wallet. In this case, any holding limit applied to the joint Digital Euro wallet should be equal to the sum of the allocated holding limits of the Digital Euro users. Where a Digital Euro wallet is legally held by only one Digital Euro user, but can be technically accessed to and used by several persons, upon de facto or legal mandate given by the Digital Euro user, any holding limit applied to the Digital Euro wallet should remain equal to the holding limit defined for a Digital Euro wallet held by a single Digital Euro user, to avoid any circumvention of the holding limits.

AddedRecital 8 d (new): (8d) The European Central Bank should be competent to issue and to authorise the issuance of the digital euro by national central banks of the Member States whose currency is the euro, exercising its powers under the Treaties.

RemovedRecital 40: (40) To ensure wide access to and use of the Digital Euro, consistent with its status of legal tender, and to support its role as monetary anchor in the euro area, natural persons residing in the euro area, natural persons who opened a Digital Euro wallet at the time they resided in the euro area, but no longer reside there, as well as visitors, should not be charged for basic Digital Euro payment services. That means that such Digital Euro users should not bear any direct fees for their basic access to and basic use of the Digital Euro, including not being charged transaction fees or any other fees that are directly associated with the provision of services related to the basic use of the Digital Euro. Digital Euro users should not be required to have or open a non-Digital Euro payment account or to accept other non-Digital Euro products. Where the Digital Euro user agrees to a package of services comprising non-Digital Euro services and basic Digital Euro payment services, the payment service provider should be able to charge that package of services at its discretion. In that case, there should not be a differentiated charge for the non-Digital Euro services when they are offered separately or as part of a package including basic Digital Euro payment services. Where the Digital Euro user asks to receive only basic Digital Euro payment services with a payment service provider, those services should not be charged, including for waterfall and reverse waterfall functionalitie…

AddedRecital 9: (9) Like euro banknotes and coins, the digital euro should be a direct liability of the European Central Bank or of the national central banks of the Member States whose currency is the euro towards digital euro users. The digital euro should be issued for an amount equal to the face value of the corresponding liability on the consolidated balance sheet of the European Central Bank and the national central banks of the Member States whose currency is the euro, in particular by converting payment service providers’ central bank reserves into digital euro, to satisfy demand from digital euro users. To hold and use digital euros, digital euro users should only need to establish a contractual relationship with payment service providers distributing the digital euro to open digital euro payment accounts or obtain an offline digital euro device. No other contractual relationship would be established between the digital euro user and the European Central Bank or the national central banks. Since payment service providers are not a party to the direct liability held by digital euro users towards the European Central Bank and the national central banks of the Member States whose currency is the euro, and are acting on behalf of digital euro users, the insolvency of payment service providers would not affect digital euro users.

RemovedRecital 42: (42) As the Digital Euro is a form of the single currency having legal tender status, Digital Euro payment transactions should not be subject to excessive fees by payment service providers. In particular, granting the Digital Euro legal tender status, with the corollary of mandatory acceptance, means that merchants would have no choice but to accept Digital Euro payment transactions. Furthermore, any charge or fee per transaction or period erodes, directly or indirectly, the face value of payments received, which is an essential component of the legal tender status. It is therefore essential that a fee or a charge, as a restriction of the face value of the Digital Euro, be objectively justified and proportionate to the objective of ensuring competition between payment means and an effective use of the Digital Euro as a legal tender means of payment.

AddedRecital 10: (10) The digital euro should be governed by the provisions of this Regulation. They may be supplemented by the delegated acts that the Commission is empowered to adopt pursuant to Articles 3, 11, 16, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38. In addition, within the framework of this Regulation and its delegated acts, the European Central Bank may adopt detailed measures, rules and standards pursuant to its own competences. Where such measures, rules and standards have an impact on the protection of individual’s rights and freedoms with regard to the processing of personal data, the European Central Bank should consult the European Data Protection Supervisor. To ensure legal certainty, the Regulation also clarifies that the digital euro is subject to Directive (EU) 2024/1640 of the European Parliament and of the Council1a and to Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 of the European Parliament and of the Council2a, without prejudice to the adjusted anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing framework laid down in this Regulation for offline digital euro payment transactions. Digital euro payment transactions and the related payment services are also subject to Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council3a, which has provided that ‘funds’ include central bank money issued for retail use (i.e. banknotes, coins and central bank digital currencies), and to Regulation (EU) 2021/1230 of the European Parliament and of the Council4a. / 1a Directive (EU) 2024/1640 of the European…

Change 2

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Change 3

RemovedRecital 45: (45) As payment services providers distributing the Digital Euro would not be in a position to charge fees to natural persons for basic Digital Euro payment services, an inter-PSP fee may be needed to provide compensation to those payment service providers for the distribution and implementation costs. The inter-PSP fee should provide sufficient compensation for the distribution and implementation costs of both the distributing and acquiring payment service providers, including a reasonable margin of profit.

AddedRecital 13: (13) Member States, their relevant authorities and payment service providers should deploy information and educational measures to ensure the necessary level of awareness and knowledge about the availability, features and possibilities of access to the offline and online forms of the digital euro once they are issued.

RemovedRecital 54: (54) The technical design of the Digital Euro should make it widely accessible to and usable by the general public. That design should, in particular, support access to financially excluded persons or persons at risk of financial exclusion, persons with disabilities by ensuring compliance with accessibility requirements laid down in Annex I of Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and the Council32 (European Accessibility Act), persons with functional limitations who would also benefit from accessibility, or persons with limited digital skills and elderly persons. For that purpose, the Digital Euro should have usage features that are simple and easy to handle, and should be sufficiently accessible through a wide range of hardware devices to cater for the needs of different groups of the population. Furthermore, payment service providers should provide Digital Euro users with Digital Euro payment services, regardless of those users holding non-Digital Euro payment accounts. In addition, those users should be allowed to have Digital Euro wallets with payment service providers that are different from the ones with which they have non-Digital Euro payment accounts.

AddedRecital 15: (15) Legal tender status is a defining characteristic of central bank money. In the euro area, until now euro banknotes and coins are the only means of payment that have the status of legal tender, pursuant to Article 128(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) and Articles 10 and 11 of Council Regulation (EC) No 974/9827. / (deleted)

RemovedRecital 55: (55) The Digital Euro should support the programming of conditional Digital Euro payment transactions by payment service providers. The Digital Euro should, however, not be “programmable money”, which means units that, due to intrinsically defined spending conditions, can only be used for buying specific types of goods or services, or are subject to time limits after which they are no longer usable. Conditional payment transactions are payments which are automatically triggered by software based on pre-defined and agreed conditions. Conditional payments should not have, as object or effect, the use of Digital Euro as programmable money. The same functionality can be achieved with open standards and interfaces so conditional payments or other instrumentalised forms of transaction are created in the layer above. Payment and other service providers could develop different types of logic to offer a range of conditional payment transactions to Digital Euro users, including automated payment transactions for placing or withdrawing Digital Euros, payment standing orders that trigger automatic payments of a specific amount on a specific date. Conditional payments comprise any payment triggered when a digitally represented condition is met. Payments between machines include but are not limited to automatically triggered payments for their own spare parts upon ordering them, for charging and paying electricity at most favourable market conditions, for paying insurance, and leasing and …

AddedRecital 16: (16) The digital euro, as a digital currency with the status of legal tender denominated in euro issued by the European Central Bank and national central banks of the Member States whose currency is the euro, as part of the Eurosystem, should be widely accessible, usable and accepted as a means of payment. Granting legal tender status to the digital euro should support its usability in payments across the euro area and thus also support the efforts to ensure the continued availability and accessibility of central bank money as cash alone cannot address the needs of a rapidly digitalising economy. In addition, the mandatory acceptance of payments in digital euro as one of the main conditions of the legal tender status ensures that people and businesses benefit from a wide acceptance and have a real choice to pay with central bank money in a digital way and in a uniform manner throughout the euro area.

RemovedRecital 56: (56) To facilitate the use of Digital Euro and the provision of innovative services, the Eurosystem should support the provision of conditional Digital Euro payment transactions. First, some types of conditional payment services could be supported through detailed measures, rules and standards that could help payment service providers to develop and operate interoperable applications that execute conditional logic. That could include a set of technical tools such as application programming interfaces. Second, conditional payments in Digital Euros may also be carried out on permissionless distributed ledgers where until now only privately issued assets like crypto-assets or stable coins are available as a means of payment. With the approval and under conditions set by the European Central Bank, the Digital Euro would be made available as a token to be referenced on these chains. International standards should be taken into consideration. Third, the Eurosystem could provide additional functionalities in the Digital Euro transfer infrastructure, necessary for the provision of conditional payment services to digital euro users. That could facilitate the reservation of funds in the transfer infrastructure for future execution of some conditional payments. Payment service providers should adapt the business logic for conditional Digital Euro payment transactions in accordance with the standards and application programming interfaces which the Eurosystem may adopt to facilitate such…