Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 5: 5. ‘digital euro payment account’ means an account held by one or more online digital euro users with a payment service provider to access online digital euro recorded in the digital euro settlement infrastructure and to initiate or receive online digital euro payment transactions, irrespective of technology and data structure;

Added(51) The use of the digital euro in cross-currency payments would furthermore contribute to foster the international use of the euro. This would also bring benefits to the euro area and other economies by facilitating cross-border payments for the purpose of trade or remittances, in line with the G20 agenda.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 5 a (new): 5a. ‘offline digital euro device’ means the secure element in which the offline digital euro is stored that complies with the software and hardware requirements set up by the European Central Bank to ensure the safety, resilience and integrity of its storage and its transfer through digital euro payment transactions;

Added(52) Digital euro users, whether they reside or are established within the euro area or not, may also have the capacity to receive or initiate cross-currency payments between the digital euro and a local currency. Arrangements concluded between the European Central Bank and national central banks in Member States whose currency is not the euro and in third countries should specify the conditions for access to and use of interoperable payment systems for the purpose of cross-currency payments involving the digital euro.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 6: 6. ‘European Digital Identity Wallets’ means European Digital Identity Wallets as defined in Article 3 point 42 of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council2a; / 1a Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (OJ L 257, 28.8.2014, p. 73, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2014/910/oj).

Added(53) Agreements and arrangements related to the provision of digital euro payment services or cross-currency payments involving the digital euro should be concluded on a voluntary basis, in priority with non-euro area Member States. The European Central Bank should cooperate with national central banks of Member States whose currency is not the euro for the purpose of cross-currency payments involving the digital euro.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 7 a (new): 7a. 'offline digital euro payment service’ means any of the business activities set out in Annex I;

Added(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 Council (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 accessible, visible, 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 payment accounts with payment service providers that are different from the ones with which they have non-digital euro payment accounts. The possibility to use digital euro services without any other product or service from that same provider should be offered in an equally accessible manner.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8: 8. 'online digital euro payment service’ means any of the business activities set out in Annex Ia;

Added(54a) The design and operation of the settlement infrastructure for the digital euro should rely on state-of-the-art technologies that ensure the implementation of privacy-by-design and privacy-by-default principles, including advanced cryptography such as zero-knowledge proof technology, and other state-of-the-art technologies, enabling the unlinkability and minimisation of data and the verification of transactions without the disclosure of personal data, while ensuring robust protection against data breaches and unauthorised access. The European Central Bank should, additionally, guarantee that the development of the digital euro settlement infrastrucutre ensures its security, continuity and integrity as well as its resilience against cyber-threats, while ensuring the readiness of back-up solutions. Overall, and to ensure the digital euro fulfils its objective to enhance the soverignty of the Union, the European Central Bank should minimise to the maximum extent possible dependencies from third country providers. The European Central Bank should additionally take into account measures to reduce the carbon footprint impact of the digital euro settlement infrastructure and consider energy efficiency metrics while developing and contracting the necessary technical solutions.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 9: 9. ‘payer’ means anyone who has offline digital euros in an offline digital euro device and transfers them to another offline digital euro device or anyone who has an online digital euro payment account and allows a payment order from that online digital euro payment account;

Added(54b) The European Central Bank should monitor technological developments, including any innovation designed to strengthen privacy, data protection, cyber-security, operational resilience, and the detection and prevention of fraud and money laundering. The European Central Bank should consider implementing new technological developments to the digital euro infrastructure after assessing their purpose, scalability and interoperability with existing infrastructure, as well as their impact on the safety, integrity, efficiency and innovation of the digital euro settlement infrastructure.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 11: 11. ‘funding’ means the process whereby a digital euro user acquires digital euros, in exchange for either cash or other funds, meaning a direct liability of the European Central Bank or a national central bank towards that digital euro user;

Added(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. Payment 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, and payments between machines where those machines are programmed to automatically trigger 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 maintenance fees on a usage basis.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 15: 15. ‘offline digital euro payment transaction’ means a digital euro payment transaction, made in physical proximity or through a digital communication link between the payer and the payee, between the offline digital euro device of the payer and the offline digital euro device of the payee, where authorisation and settlement take place in the local storage devices of both payer and payee;

Added(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, in close cooperation with market participants, notably in consultation with the advisory platform for the digital euro scheme rulebook. 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, the Eurosystem could provide additional functionalities in the digital euro settlement infrastructure, necessary for the provision of conditional payment services to digital euro users. That could facilitate the reservation of funds in the settlement 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 transactions.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 17: 17. ‘conditional digital euro payment transaction’ means an online digital euro payment transaction which is instructed automatically upon fulfilment of pre-defined conditions agreed by the payer and by the payee;

Added(57) European Digital Identity Wallets could facilitate digital transactions by enabling authentication, identification and the exchange of attributes including licenses and certificates. European Digital Identity Wallets should contribute to the effective universal access to and use of the digital euro. Member States should issue European Digital Identity Wallets based on common standards and practices set out in the implementing legislation. The European Digital Identity Wallet should have strong and specific safeguards to ensure data protection and privacy and high-level security certification. Front-end solutions to be developed by the European Central Bank should therefore duly consider the technical specifications governing the European Digital Identity Wallets. This would enable the relevant interoperability with the European Digital Identity Wallets that would allow to capitalise on these benefits. Based on user choice, interoperability with the European Digital Identity Wallet should also allow to discharge customer due diligence under Regulation (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for a Regulation for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation – COM/2021/421 final). Furthermore, to achieve a coherent customer experience, intermediaries might choose to fully integrate their digital euro user interface into the specifications governing the European Digital Identity Wallets.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 19: 19. ‘digital euro settlement infrastructure’ means the settlement infrastructure of the online digital euro adopted by the Eurosystem;

Added(58) Users should be able, if they so wish, to onboard and authorise payments with the digital euro by using the European Digital Identity Wallets. Payment service providers should therefore be obliged to accept the European Digital Identity Wallets for the verification of both prospective and existing customers’ identities, in line with Regulation (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for a Regulation for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation – COM/2021/421 final). To facilitate the opening of digital euro accounts across the Union, payment service providers should also be able to rely on qualified attestations provided by the European Digital Identity Wallets, including for the remote performance of customer due diligence. Payment service providers should also accept the use of European Digital Identity Wallets if the payer wishes to use the wallet for payment authorisation of both online and offline digital euro payment transactions. ▌ In addition, where a provider of European Digital Identity Wallets allows for the integration and use of payment instruments, payment service providers should ensure that, upon request, a digital euro user is able to access that user’s digital euro account information and initiate digital euro payments via the user’s European Digital Identity Wallet. Use of European Digital Identity Wallets should be voluntary and should contribute to a seamless and protected user experience, reduce administrative burden and strengthen trust, security and user control over personal data. A provider of European Digital Identity Wallet should not access transaction data.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 25: 25. ‘comparable digital means of payment’ means digital means of payment, including debit card payment and instant payment at the point of interaction but excluding credit transfer and direct debit that are not initiated at the point of interaction;

Added(58a) In accordance with Article 5a(15) of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, use of European Digital Identity Wallets remains voluntary. Additionally, in line with the principles of data minimisation and privacy by design and by default, payment service providers should provide, at the user’s request, the possibility of authentication and identification by means of non-biometric data.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 26: 26. ‘switching’ means, upon an online digital euro user’s request, transferring from one payment service provider to another either the information about all or some online digital euro payment services, including recurring payments, executed on an online digital euro payment account, or the digital euro holdings from one online digital euro payment account to the other, or both, with or without closing the former online digital euro payment account, while maintaining the same account identifier;

Added(59) To facilitate a harmonised user experience, the digital euro rules, standards and processes that the European Central Bank may adopt pursuant to its own competences, should ensure that any digital euro user is able to carry out digital euro payment transactions with any other digital euro users across the euro area regardless of the payment service providers involved and the front-end services used. To reduce the fragmentation of the European retail payments market, and to support competition, efficiency and innovation in that market, and the development of payment instruments across the Union in keeping with the objective of the Commission’s retail payment strategy, the digital euro should be, to the extent possible, compatible with private digital payment solutions, building on functional and technical synergies. In particular, the European Central Bank should seek to ensure that the digital euro is compatible with private digital payment solutions at the point of interaction, and in person-to-person payments, where the fragmentation of the Union retail payments market is currently significant. The use of open standards, common rules and processes, and possibly shared infrastructures could support such compatibility. While existing solutions may be reused where such solutions are deemed appropriate to ensure that compatibility and interoperability, notably in view of minimising overall adaptation costs, such existing solutions should not create undue dependencies that could prevent adaptation of the digital euro to new technologies or would be incompatible with the digital euro features. In order to achieve these objectives, and without conferring any enforceable rights upon market operators, the European Central Bank should seek to ensure that the digital euro is compatible with private digital payment solutions on a best-effort basis and where deemed appropriate, and that digital euro solutions should be open by design, relying on open standards, rules and processes to which payment service providers can easily adhere.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 27: 27. ‘user identifier’ means a unique identifier created by a payment service provider distributing the online digital euro that unambiguously differentiates, for online digital euro purposes, digital euro users but that is not attributable to an identifiable natural or legal person by the European Central Bank and the national central banks;

Added▌

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 28: 28. ‘user alias’ means a unique pseudonymous identifier used to protect user’s identity when processing online digital euro payments that can only be attributable to an identifiable natural or legal person by the payment service provider distributing the online digital euro or by the digital euro user;

Added(60a) To protect consumers, maintain trust in the digital euro and contribute to its proper functioning, the European Central Bank and the national central banks should ensure that mechanisms are in place to support payment service providers in facilitating the resolution of pre-disputes and disputes related to digital euro payment transactions. The European Central Bank and the national central banks should, as a minimum, establish mechanisms of technical and functional support that facilitate the exchange of messages between payment service providers with a view to the resolution of pre-disputes and disputes and make those mechanisms easily accessible and usable for digital euro users. Disputes may arise in a number of situations, including those concerning the execution of a digital euro payment transaction, such as payment-related fraud or technical issues, or those relating to the good or service underlying a transaction. Technical disputes include situations where the transaction amount differs, where there are duplicates, or where there is an issue with authorisation or pre-validation or with the switching of digital euro payment accounts. Payment-related fraud disputes include inter alia situations of identity theft, merchant identity fraud, and payment service provider impersonation fraud. Payment service providers should establish and apply appropriate and effective procedures for handling and resolving complaints received from digital euro users, in line with the applicable requirements of [PSD3/PSR], and which are at least equivalent to those available for comparable instruments.

RemovedArticle 2 – paragraph 1 – point 29: 29. ‘user authentication’ means a unique piece of information created by the payment service provider distributing the online digital euro that, together with the user identifier, allows a digital euro user to prove ownership of the online digital euro holdings recorded in the digital euro settlement infrastructure;

Added(60b) The European Central Bank should act as the dispute-settlement body for settling disputes among payment service providers relating to the application of the rulebook governing the operation of the digital euro. The role and functions of the European Central Bank in that capacity should be established by means of a contract between the European Central Bank and all payment service providers distributing the digital euro. To perform those functions, the European Central Bank should adopt internal rules and a governance framework for dispute settlement that ensures no interference and full independence from the European Central Bank payment-system oversight functions. Decisions issued by the European Central Bank under that mechanism should be final and binding on all participating payment service providers and directly enforceable vis-à-vis their users through the payment service providers’ contractual obligations, without prejudice to the right to seek redress before judicial authorities in accordance with Union and national law.

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 1: 1. The offline digital euro is hereby established as a digital form of the single currency.

Added(60c) As the responsible entity and guarantor of the infrastrucutre and functionalities operated by the European Central Bank, or national central banks, which govern the operation of the digital euro, the European System of Central Banks should be liable for any loss or damage attributuable to its actions or omissions in relation to such infrastructure or functionalities. That includes the possibility of right of recourse by payment service providers against the European System of Central Banks for any loss or damage incurred in their role as digital euro distributors attributable to the digital user interface provided by the European Central Bank. Digital euro users should not bear any loss of online digital euro holdings resulting from any system outage, technical malfunction or disruption of the digital euro settlement infrastructure.

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 a (new): 1a. The establishment of the online digital euro as a digital form of the single currency shall be subject to the condition set out in paragraphs 1b and 1c.

Added(61) To access and use the digital euro as part of digital euro payment services, digital euro users should be provided with an accessible, visible and simple digital euro user interface. Those users should have the possibility to access and use basic digital euro payment services via at least one digital euro user interface provided by the payment service providers, which could be the one made available by the European Central Bank, the one developed by that payment service provider directly, or the digital euro user interface provided by other payment service providers. ▌Where digital euro users are offered the possibility to choose between different digital euro user interfaces, the decision to select a given digital euro user interface should ultimately rest in the hands of those users ▌. However, payment service providers designated by a Member State to provide basic digital euro services to natural persons who do not hold or do not wish to hold a non-digital euro payment account, or to provide digital inclusion support services, should offer access to the digital euro user interface made available by the European Central Bank. The European Central Bank and the payment service providers 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 accessed by the ECB via its digital euro user interface.

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 b (new): 1b. The European Central Bank shall inform the Commission of the completion of the preparatory work for the issue of the offline digital euro referred to in Article 4(2a) immediatelly after its completion. Taking into account the European Central Bank’s information, the Commission shall assess whether pan-European sovereign retail payment solutions operate and enable payments in all euro area Member States with regard to person-to-person, point-of-sale and e-commerce payments, either directly or through interoperability with other European sovereign retail payment solutions. Within six months of receipt of the European Central Bank’s information pursuant to the first subparagraph, the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and to the Council, setting out the conclusions of its assessment pursuant to the second subparagraph. In the report referred to in the third subparagraph, the Commission shall also assess: (a) the progress of Pan-European sovereign payment solutions with regard to providing greater European sovereignty and resilience in payments, (b) the impact of Pan-European sovereign payment solutions on competition and innovation on the payment markets.

Added(62) To avoid interfering in the payment service providers’ customer relationships and their role in the digital euro distribution, the digital euro user interface provided by the European Central Bank should be limited to providing an interface between digital euro users and the payment infrastructures of payment service providers. In particular, the Eurosystem would not have a contractual relationship with digital euro users even if those users use the digital euro user interface provided by the European Central Bank ▌.

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 c (new): 1c. In the event the report referred to in paragraph 1b, third subparagraph concludes a negative assessment for a pan-European sovereign retail payment solutions pursuant to paragraph 1b, second subparagraph, the Commission is empowered to adopt a delegated act to declare that absence. Without prejudice to Article 4(2c), the online digital euro shall be considered to be established on the date of entry into force of that delegated act.

Added(63) To enable a smooth user experience, payment service providers that provide digital euro users with a digital euro user interface to access and use the digital euro should take care that digital euro users can quickly and easily access and use the digital euro. The digital euro user interface should allow users to access in a single place all digital euro services, including both the online and offline digital euro payment functionalities. In particular, digital euro payment accounts should be clearly labelled by the use of the official digital euro logo. Digital euro payment accounts should be accessed via one the main pages of the Internet website or an application, or any other digital euro user interface, on an equal footing with non-digital euro payment accounts.

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 d (new): 1d. The Commission shall adopt any such delegated act within six months of submitting its report to the European Parliament and the Council pursuant to paragraph 1b, third subparagraph.

Added(64) To provide for instantaneous settlement, both online and offline digital euro transactions, including in the context of funding and defunding, and as waterfall and reverse waterfall functionalities, should be settled instantaneously, in a few seconds only, in normal circumstances. The settlement of online digital euro payment transactions should be performed in the digital euro settlement infrastructure adopted by the Eurosystem. Online digital euro payment transactions should be settled in a matter of seconds as specified under the functional and technical requirements adopted by the European Central Bank. Final settlement of online digital euro payment transactions should be achieved at the moment of recording the digital euros concerned of the payer and the payee in the digital euro settlement infrastructure approved by the European Central Bank, irrespective of whether digital euros are recorded as holding balances or units of value, or of the technology used. The digital euro settlement infrastructure should seek to ensure adaptation to new technologies, including distributed ledger technology. The settlement infrastructure should be designed in such a way that neither the European Central Bank nor national central banks can identify a specific digital euro user.

RemovedArticle 4 – paragraph 1: 1. In accordance with the Treaties, the European Central Bank shall have the exclusive right to authorise the issue of the digital euro, and the European Central Bank and the national central banks may issue it.

Added(65) Due to the absence of network connectivity, the settlement of offline proximity payments in digital euros should be performed in the local storage ▌ device respectively of payers and payees. Offline proximity payments in digital euros should be settled in a matter of seconds as specified under the functional and technical requirements adopted by the European Central Bank. Final settlement should occur at the moment when the funds in the payer’s local storage device are directly transferred to the payee’s local storage device, without the need for any intermediation by any payment service provider or any centralised digital euro settlement infrastructure. ▌

RemovedArticle 4 – paragraph 2 a (new): 2a. The European Central Bank shall conduct without delay all the technical and organisational tasks for the issue of the offline digital euro, in particular: / (a) the completion of the rulebook; / (b) the necessary infrastructure development and deployment; / (c) all the organisational arrangements; / (d) governance provisions; and / (e) a successful pilot testing with real end users in a controlled test environment.

Added(65a) The offline digital euro payment functionality is intended to provide users with a payment experience that is as close as possible to cash. An offline digital euro transaction does not depend on internet connectivity or any type of immediate synchronisation with the digital euro settlement infrastrcuture. For that reason, and in the same way as losing a wallet containing cash, if a user loses a local storage device, the offline digital euro holdings on it cannot be claimed back to the payment service provider or the European Central Bank.

RemovedArticle 4 – paragraph 2 b (new): 2b. The European Central Bank shall conduct all the technical and organisational tasks for the issue of the online digital euro.

Added(66) Since payment service providers are not party to a digital euro payment transaction between two digital euro users, digital euro payment transactions do not carry systemic risks and therefore do not warrant designation as a system as defined in Article 2, point (a), of Directive 98/26/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. Digital euro payment transactions should be settled in a matter of seconds and therefore no options to net should be allowed.

RemovedArticle 4 – paragraph 2 c (new): 2c. After the authorisation of the issue of the digital euro, the European Central Bank shall provide for a roll-out phase of at least 24 months, for both the offline and the online forms, to ensure a secure, resilient and gradual adaptation by the Eurosystem, payment service providers and digital euro users.

Added(67) For reasons of contractual freedom and to ensure competition, digital euro users should have the possibility to switch their digital euro payment accounts to different payment service providers. At the request of the digital euro users or with their consent, payment service providers should then enable the switching of the digital euro payment accounts without undue delay, while maintaining the same digital euro payment account number. In exceptional circumstances where a payment service provider is unable to perform this task, including due to having lost the relevant digital euro payment account-related data, the European Central Bank should, with the user’s consent, be able to authorise the switching of digital euro payment accounts so that the new payment service provider designated by the digital euro user can retrieve the information about the digital euro holdings of the digital euro user and complete the switching without relying on the unavailable payment service provider. This process should allow a digital euro user to then continue accessing its digital euro holdings via the new designated payment service provider. The European Central Bank would not have any operational role in the switching on digital euro payment accounts. The switching service should not result in additional data being collected by the European Central Bank and national central banks other than the data to which they already have access.

RemovedArticle 5 – paragraph 1: 1. The digital euro shall be governed by the provisions of this Regulation, supplemented by the delegated acts that the Commission is empowered to adopt pursuant to Articles 3, 11, 16, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38.

Added(68) The prevention of fraud by payment service providers is essential for the protection of citizens making use of the digital euro, the integrity of the personal data processed in digital euro payments, and to ensure the smooth and efficient functioning of the digital euro. Fraud prevention plays an essential role in maintaining trust in the single currency. For this purpose, the European Central Bank should ensure that a general fraud detection and prevention mechanism is established to support fraud detection and prevention activities performed by payment service providers on online digital euro payment transactions. A general fraud detection and prevention mechanism delivers a range of essential functions to detect fraud patterns that a single payment service provider could not detect on its own. Often one payment service provider does not have the full picture about all elements that could lead to timely fraud detection. However, it can be made more effective with information on potentially fraudulent activity stemming from other payment service providers. This general fraud detection function exists in comparable payment schemes and is necessary to achieve demonstrably low fraud rates in order to keep the digital euro secure for both consumers and merchants. The transfer of information between PSPs and the fraud detection and prevention mechanism should be subject to state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures to ensure that individual digital euro users are not identified by the central fraud detection and prevention mechanism. In its activities regarding fraud detection and prevention, the European Central Bank should not require, or be granted access to, the identification of digital euro users.

RemovedArticle 5 – paragraph 4: 4. In accordance with Article 2(10) of Regulation (EU) 2021/1230, the provisions of that Regulation shall apply to digital euro payment transactions.

Added(69) To process digital euro payments online or offline, it is essential that digital user interface providers for the digital euro and issuers of European Digital Identity Wallets obtain access to near field communication technology (NFC) on mobile devices. These components include, in particular but not exclusively, NFC antennas and the so-called secure elements of mobile devices (e.g.: Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC), embedded SE (eSE), and microSD etc). It is therefore necessary to ensure that whenever needed to provide digital euro services, original equipment manufacturers of mobile devices or providers of electronic communication services would not refuse access to NFC antennas and secure elements. Central bank money with legal tender should be widely accessible. To ensure this also in the digital economy, providers of digital user interfaces for the digital euro and operators of European Digital Identity Wallets should be entitled to store software on relevant mobile devices’ hardware in order to make transactions with digital euro technically possible both online and offline. For this purpose, original equipment manufacturers of mobile devices and providers of electronic communication services should be obliged to provide access on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms to all hardware and software components when needed for online and offline digital euro transactions. In all instances, such operators would be obliged to provide adequate capacity on relevant hardware and software features in mobile devices to process online digital euro payment transactions and for storing digital euros on mobile devices for offline digital euro payment transactions. This obligation should be without prejudice to Article 6 paragraph (7) of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925, which obliges gatekeepers to provide, free of charge, effective interoperability with, and access for the purposes of interoperability to, the operating system, hardware or software features of mobile devices, which is applicable to existing and new digital means of payments, including the digital euro.

RemovedArticle 5 – paragraph 5: 5. Without prejudice to Article 37 of this Regulation, Directive (EU) 2024/1640 and Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 shall apply to digital euro payment transactions.

Added(69a) The digital euro should be as easy and convenient to use as comparable digital means of payment. To that end, it should be available through the same functionalities and user interfaces commonly used for digital payments, including near-field communication (NFC) and ‘tap-and-go’ solutions. In order to make that possible, manufacturers should provide access to software and hardware equipment on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, or free of charge, where required under the Regulation 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council or pursuant to relevant commitments or decisions adopted under Union competition law. That should ensure that users can access and use the digital euro under conditions equivalent to those applicable to comparable digital payment solutions, including through functionalities such as double-click access where available.

RemovedArticle 6 – paragraph 3: 3. Directive (EU) 2024/1640 shall govern the supervision by competent authorities, the sanctions regime and supervisory arrangements between the competent authorities of the home Member States and of the host Member States, concerning the activities of Payment Services Providers in relation to the digital euro for the purpose of ensuring compliance with Chapter IX of this Regulation.

Added(70) The rights to privacy and personal data protection are fundamental rights enshrined in Article 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. As stressed by the European Data Protection Board, a high standard of privacy and data protection is crucial to ensure the trust of Europeans in the future digital euro. This is also in line with the G7 Public Policy Principles for Retail Central Bank Digital Currencies. The processing of personal data for compliance and in the context of this Regulation would be carried out in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Regulation (EU) 2018/1715, as well as, where applicable, Directive 2002/58/EC.

RemovedArticle 6 – paragraph 5: 5. Member States shall ensure that adequate measures are in place to raise awareness among the public about the availability and features of the offline digital euro and possibilities of access to the offline digital euro.

Added(71) The digital euro should therefore be designed so as to minimise the processing of personal data by payment service providers and by the European Central Bank to what is necessary to ensure the proper functioning of the digital euro. The digital euro should be available offline, with a level of privacy vis a vis payment service providers which is comparable to withdrawals of banknotes at automatic teller machines. The settlement of digital euro transactions should be designed in such a way that neither the European Central Bank nor national central banks can attribute data to an identified or identifiable digital euro user.

RemovedArticle 6 – paragraph 5 a (new): 5a. Member States shall ensure that adequate measures are in place to raise awareness among the public about the availability and features of the online digital euro and possibilities of access to the online digital euro, upon its establishment in accordance with Article 3.

Added(72) Data protection by design and data protection by default should be embedded in all data processing systems developed and used within the framework of this Regulation. The processing of personal data should be subject to appropriate safeguards to protect the rights and freedoms of the data subject. Those safeguards should ensure that technical and organisational measures are in place in particular to ensure respect for the data protection principles laid down in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Regulation (EU) 2018/1715, including data minimisation and purpose limitation. The principle of privacy preservation should be maintained at all times and no further processing of personal data should be allowed.