ECB pushes digital euro, meets the needs of Draghi report

Brussels –Digital euro, forward now more than ever: Now that competitiveness is in the spotlight and high on the political agenda thanks to the Draghi report, the all-European alternative to electronic circuits such as Visa and Mastercard for payments in the eurozone becomes even more important. So hints Piero Cipollone, a member of the Executive Committee of the European Central Bank. He denounces there are “high costs for European merchants, who pay a significant amount to international circuits of cards such as Visa or Mastercard.” This is, he stressed at the hearing in the European Parliament’s Economic Affairs Committee, a “burden borne mostly by smaller merchants, who are charged fees three to four times higher than those of their larger competitors.”

This situation makes it difficult to imagine full European competitiveness when people are pressing for more of it. So much so that Cipollone points out how a digital euro “would offer new opportunities for European business owners,” who, he denounces, “are today largely dependent on a few operators who dominate the online or card payment sector, and often resort to non-European suppliers.”

However, there is not only the issue of businesses but also consumers in this argument, which Cipollone strongly defends and raises. When buying through channels that do not require cash, the ECB body member recalls, “most often the only option is PayPal or an international card circuit such as Visa or Mastercard.” Even this summer, he points out, “buying tickets to the European Football Championship in Germany was only possible with Chinese or American means of payment.” Here, then, “a digital euro would strengthen Europe’s financial sovereignty and resilience because it would be based on European technology and infrastructure.”

The time for a choice is now. The Draghi report insists on completing the capital market and strengthening the single market. In this sense, the digital euro appears to be one of the answers to these needs. “It would enable Europe to develop and operate digital payment solutions independently, promoting a more integrated single market.”