Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

RemovedEXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Added1. With a view to ensuring access to and usability of central bank money for both natural and legal persons ▌, while supporting monetary policy, safeguarding monetary sovereignty and mitigating risks to the stability of the financial system, the use of the digital euro as a store of value shall be subject to holding limits that are the same across all euro area Member States and respect the principle of proportionality.

RemovedThe Single Currency Package responds to the increasing digitalisation of the economy, in which access to cash – currently the only form of the single currency available to citizens – is declining. The Rapporteur supports this package to ensure that the euro, in all its forms, remains the foundation of a competitive, innovative, open and strategically autonomous European economy. Europe’s single currency is more than a means of payment: it is a cornerstone of the Union’s strategic autonomy.

Added2. With a view to ensuring the accessibility and usability▌ of the digital euro as a legal tender means of payment, and to avoiding excessive charges for merchants subject to the obligation to accept the digital euro under Chapter II while providing appropriate and fair compensation for the relevant costs incurred by payment services providers for the mandatory provision of digital euro payment services, the level of charges or fees to be paid by natural persons or merchants to payment service providers, or between payment service providers, shall be subject to limits. Any charges or fees in relation to digital euro payment transactions shall comply with the principle of proportionality. No charges or fees shall be imposed on digital euro users for basic digital euro payment services.

RemovedTo guarantee continued access to central bank money in the digital era, a digital version of the single currency should be introduced, while reinforcing the right of EU citizens to use cash. Europe must also address its overreliance on non-European payment providers. A genuine European response in payments is needed to strengthen strategic autonomy amidst geopolitical instability.

Added1. For the purpose of Article 15(1), the European Central Bank:

RemovedUnder the Rapporteur’s vision, defining that response is the purpose of this proposal. He clearly distinguishes between two digital forms of the single currency accessible to citizens and businesses.

Added(a) shall define quantitative limits on the digital euro holdings of natural persons; and

RemovedOn the one hand, the offline digital euro is understood as a tokenised version of cash, not account-based, but operating through “device-to-device” payments. It guarantees privacy, resilience, and universal accessibility even in times of network failure or crisis. Stored and transferred locally on secure devices, it preserves the right of citizens to hold central-bank money in all circumstances. In short: digital cash.

Added(b) may develop other instruments to limit the use of the digital euro as a store of value.

RemovedOn the other hand, the online digital euro is conceived as an account-based system that requires a digital euro settlement infrastructure operated through the ECB. By its very nature, the online form of the digital euro entails risks of bank disintermediation, loss of deposits, direct competition with private payment solutions and, ultimately, a negative impact on the financing capacity of European businesses and households.

Added2. The European Central Bank shall, after consulting the European Systemic Risk Board and with the involvement of relevant stakeholders, including payment service providers, prepare a technical report on the specific quantitative limits on digital euro holdings of natural persons and on any other instruments developed to limit the use of the digital euro as a store of value. The European Central Bank shall publish that report at least one year before the envisaged date of the first issuance of the digital euro referred to in Article 4(1).

RemovedToday, Europe’s payment ecosystem works: citizens can pay conveniently, and the system is stable. The issue is not one of functionality, but of scale, reach, and dependency. For over twenty years, Europeans have shared a currency but not an indigenous pan-European payment system. Many transactions still depend on non-European providers, exposing Europe to technological and geopolitical risks. The Commission’s 2023 proposals sought to address this via a digital euro, but since then, private initiatives have advanced and Europe’s priorities have evolved.

Added2a. Quantitative limits on the digital euro holdings of natural persons and any other instruments developed to limit the use of the digital euro as a store of value as referred to in paragraph 1 shall:

RemovedThe Rapporteur’s amendments offer a nuanced, realistic and updated response. They propose establishing an offline digital euro while making the online version conditional on the absence of a pan-European sovereign retail payment solution, to be verified by the Commission through a market test once the ECB concludes its offline digital euro preparatory work.

Added(a) safeguard the objectives set out in Article 15(1), in particular the stability of the financial system across the euro area and each Member State;

RemovedThe Rapporteur stresses his agnostic stance toward the outcome of this test, from which he expects an objective assessment of the private sector’s capacity to operate at euro-area scale in person-to-person, point-of-sale and e-commerce payments. It is in the Rapporteur’s interest to clarify that this assessment by the Commission shall in no case delay the ECB’s preparatory work or the overall process.

Added(b) ensure the usability and acceptance of the digital euro as a legal tender instrument;

RemovedThis approach provides a holistic, proportionate and evidence-based response, balancing financial stability with competitiveness in the payments system. Under this framework, the offline digital euro would represent a proportionate European response, free from financial stability risks, and ensuring European payment sovereignty — without prejudging the possibility that the private sector could solve the scale and dependency gaps of the European payments ecosystem through interoperability.

Added(c) respect the principle of proportionality.;

RemovedIn conclusion, the Rapporteur’s amendments to the establishment of the digital euro are formulated to ensure that the offline digital euro is introduced to address the challenge of the digitalisation of the economy, while the online digital euro is made conditional upon the absence of a pan-European private sovereign retail payment solution. This conditionality ensures that the digital euro acts as a safety net against market fragmentation, not as a parallel payments ecosystem hindering private solutions from reaching pan-European scale or discouraging continuous innovation.

Added(d)take into account the evolving architecture of the financial system and the impact of such holding limits and any other instruments, at Union and Member State levels, on different business models of Union deposit-taking institutions, in stress scenarios, including severe liquidity and tail-risk events, based on a granular assessment of the distribution of deposit structures of deposit-taking entities across the Union banking sector, including the weight of small-value deposits in bank funding and the specific deposit structure of financial institutions primarily relying on retail small-value deposits.

RemovedNothing in this position questions the importance of developing the wholesale digital euro, which the Rapporteur strongly supports as the most effective means to modernise interbank settlement, enhance cross-border efficiency and strengthen monetary-policy transmission across the euro area.

Added2b. The European Central Bank shall adopt a decision on the quantitative limits on digital euro holdings of natural persons prior to the first issuance of the digital euro. Those limits shall respect the overall ceiling determined in accordance with Article 16a.

RemovedSeparately, the Rapporteur treats this package as one coherent vision for the future of money in Europe, built upon three reinforcing pillars:

AddedThe European Central Bank shall without delay adjust the limits set in accordance with the previous subparagraph to comply with the overall ceiling established in the delegated act referred to in Article 16a(3) and (5).

Removed safeguarding the universality and access to cash,

Added3. Quantitative limits on the digital euro holdings and any other instruments developed to limit the use of the digital euro as a store of value referred to in paragraph 1 shall be applied in a non-discriminatory manner and uniformly across the euro area.

Removed introducing a digital form of central-bank money following a speedy but cautious approach which will also serve as a means of payment, and

Added3a. For the purposes of Article 15(1), legal persons shall not maintain any digital euro holdings.

Removed allowing its cross-border provision in a way that respects non euro area Member States and third countries’ competences, and sovereignty and preserves the integrity of the single market.

AddedNotwithstanding the first subparagraph of this paragraph, legal persons, when acting as payees in digital euro payment transactions, and in accordance with Article 13(2b), may accumulate temporary holdings of incoming digital euro payments for a maximum period of 24 hours to allow for batch defunding of digital euros to their non-digital euro payment accounts.

RemovedThe Single Currency package sets out a vision of a Europe adapted to the digital era, and committed to its strategic autonomy through openness: Europe leading by building capacity, sovereignty and resilience not by closing markets.

AddedBy way of derogation from the first subparagraph, in the event of a temporary network disruption due to force majeure events, legal persons may maintain temporary holdings of digital euro with no limits for the duration of the disruption. As soon as the network disruption comes to an end, automatic defunding in accordance with Article 13(2b) shall be available.

RemovedThe rapporteur views this package as a single, coherent response to a twin challenge: Europe’s over-reliance on non-European payment providers and the need to anchor monetary sovereignty in an open, competitive and innovative market to ensure that Europe possesses its own backbone of payment resilience.

AddedThe temporary digital euro holdings referred to in the second and third subparagraph of this paragraph shall not be considered as a breach of the holding limit set pursuant to this Article or to Article 37.

RemovedBeing this approach the core of the Rapporteur’s proposal, he also addresses several additional concerns regarding the rules, framework and operational aspects of the legislation.

Added4. Any limits on digital euro payment accounts adopted pursuant to paragraph 1 shall apply to both online and offline holdings.

RemovedThe Rapporteur clarifies the framework under which payment service providers (PSPs) established and supervised in the Union may distribute the digital euro in line with Directive (EU) 2015/2366. PSPs shall offer online and offline digital-euro payment services to residents and businesses in euro-area Member States, and to certain non-resident users, under defined conditions.

AddedA digital euro user who is a natural person may set its limits to offline digital euro holdings at any amount between zero and the holding limit set in accordance with Article 37.

RemovedDistinct rules apply to the online and offline digital euro. For the online digital euro, PSPs must enable users to fund and defund their digital-euro accounts—manually or automatically—from or to non-digital-euro accounts, offline devices or cash, within limits based on financial stability. For the offline digital euro, PSPs shall provide equivalent functionalities through secure devices, allowing users and merchants to load or redeem balances in line with stability and AML requirements.

AddedWhere a digital euro user who is a natural person uses both the online digital euro payment functionality and offline digital euro payment functionality, the limit that applies to the online digital euro holdings shall equal the specific quantitative limit of digital euro holdings defined by the European Central Bank minus the ▌ limit for the offline digital euro holdings determined by digital euro users.

RemovedThe amendments establish an automatic defunding mechanism linking each online digital-euro account to a single non-digital-euro account designated by the user, ensuring compliance with holding limits and continuity of payments. The digital euro distributed by PSPs shall be convertible at par with other forms of euro-denominated money, and users shall maintain a contractual relationship only with PSPs, not with the ECB or national central banks. Users may hold one or several online accounts with the same or different PSPs, and providers must make information on features and conditions publicly available free of charge.

Added5. The limits ▌ on the use of the digital euro as a store of value applicable to the persons referred to in Article 13(1), points (b), (c), (d), (e) and (ea), shall not be higher than those effectively implemented in the euro area for natural and legal persons residing or established in Member States whose currency is the euro. The ▌use of the instruments shall be applied in a non-discriminatory manner and uniformly across Member States whose currency is not the euro. When deciding on the use of the instruments in those Member States▌, the European Central Bank shall consult national central banks of Member States whose currency is not the euro.

RemovedThe rapporteur introduces specific holding limits to ensure that the digital euro is serving as a means of payment and it cannot evolve into a store of value. Holding limits, combined with funding and defunding mechanisms, they prevent excessive accumulation while enabling frictionless daily use, safeguarding the banking sector’s intermediation role and financial stability.

Added6. Where a digital euro user has multiple digital euro payment accounts, that digital euro user shall specify to the payment service providers with which the digital euro payment accounts are held how the individual holding limit is to be allocated between the different digital euro payment accounts and between the local storage devices.

RemovedTrust also depends on fairness. The Rapporteur sets principles on fees and charges to ensure that PSPs required to distribute the digital euro are fairly compensated while merchants are not overcharged. Since at the time of issuance there will not yet be sufficient information on average unit costs or the total volume of digital-euro transactions, a transition period will be needed. During that period, fees and charges will be based on a “no-worse-off” clause, ensuring a high degree of proportionality by applying criteria comparable to existing means of payment at a granular level.

Added7. Where a digital euro payment account is held jointly by more than one digital euro user, any holding limit on such digital euro payment account ▌shall be equal to the sum of the individual holding limits allocated to it by each of its users.

RemovedMoreover, the Rapporteur proposes that if, after a ten-year transition period, it is demonstrated that a cost-based compensation model delivers lower costs, greater efficiency and competition in payment markets, and prevents cross-subsidisation across merchant business models or within the European payments ecosystem, the Commission should propose a new legislative framework on fees and charges for the provision of digital-euro payment services.

Added7 a. Payment service providers providing account servicing payment services within the meaning of Directive and Regulation [PSD3/PSR] to the natural and legal persons referred to in Article 13(1) of this Regulation shall apply the limits and instruments set out in this Article to digital euro payment accounts. For that purpose, they shall use the single access point referred to in Article 35(8).

RemovedThe Rapporteur also stresses that citizens will embrace the digital euro only if it protects privacy as effectively as cash protects anonymity. AML/CFT controls shall apply at the user level, not by marking individual digital units, thereby preserving fungibility and preventing programmable or traceable money. The ECB must also ensure that fraud and counterfeiting levels remain below those of comparable instruments. Privacy, security and technological resilience are thus design imperatives, not optional features.

Added8. ▌The digital euro shall not bear interest.

RemovedThe two accompanying proposals complete this framework. The Regulation on the legal tender of euro banknotes and coins guarantees universal acceptance and access to cash in proportion to citizens’ demand, ensuring financial inclusion and resilience. Its coordination with the digital euro regulation is essential to avoid any perception of substitution. The Regulation on the provision of digital euro services in non-euro-area Member States provides the external dimension, allowing PSPs in those countries to offer digital-euro services under conditions respecting national prerogatives and the integrity of the single market.

Added1. Quantitative limits on digital euro holdings of natural persons, as referred to in Article 16(1) shall be subject to an overall ceiling determined in accordance with this Article.

RemovedIn a nutshell, the Rapporteur’s proposal recognises that technological sovereignty in payments cannot be legislated into existence; it must stem from competition, innovation and trust. By prioritising private European infrastructures, the Single Currency Package safeguards both the euro’s stability and Europe’s competitiveness. It modernises the single currency without transforming it into a public payment monopoly.

Added2. The European Central Bank shall, when publishing the report referred to in Article 16(2), submit a recommendation to the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, on the overall ceiling of the quantitative limits referred to in Article 16 (1a).

Added3. The Commission is empowered to adopt a delegated act, in accordance with Article 38, to set an overall ceiling for limits on the digital euro holdings for natural persons. The delegated act shall be adopted within three months of reception of the recommendation of the European Central Bank referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article. The delegated act shall reflect the criteria laid down in Article 16 (2a).

Added4. A delegated act adopted pursuant to the previous paragraph shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or the Council within a period of three months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by three months at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council. If the delegated act has not been adopted at the end of such period, the European Central Bank shall be able to set the specific quantitative limit on digital euro holdings for natural persons according to Article 16(2) in accordance with its technical report.

Added5. The overall ceiling for quantitative limits on the digital euro holdings of natural persons shall be reviewed at least every two years. To that end, at least six months before the end of every two-year period after the entry into force of the delegated act referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article, the European Central Bank shall publish a new recommendation for the overall ceiling for the quantitative limits on the digital euro holdings of natural persons referred to in Article 16 (1a). The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts, in accordance with Article 38, revising the overall ceiling for limits on the digital euro holdings of natural persons.

Added1. For the purpose of ensuring an effective use of the digital euro as a legal tender means of payment, ▌payment service providers shall not charge fees, whether direct, indirect or bundled, ▌for the provision of ▌any of the following: