By David Barwick – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said Tuesday that the ECB was stepping up technical preparations for a possible digital euro launch in 2029, with a pilot due to begin in the second half of 2027 if EU legislation is adopted this year.

Speaking before the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs in Brussels, Cipollone said the Eurosystem would only move ahead once the legal framework was in place. “We will only consider issuing the digital euro once the legislation is in place and we would issue it in full compliance with the legislation,” he said.

A call for licensed payment service providers to join the pilot was launched in early March, he said. Selected firms are to be notified in June, development is to start in the third quarter of 2026, and the pilot itself is to run for 12 months starting in the second half of 2027, he said.

That work is being carried out on the assumption that EU co-legislators adopt the digital euro regulation this year, he said. Under that timetable, he said, the ECB is preparing “to ensure technical readiness for potentially issuing the digital euro as of 2029.”

Cipollone also pressed lawmakers to move quickly, arguing that early legal clarity would help banks, merchants and other market participants prepare their systems. “A clear and timely legal framework would allow us to complete our preparations and it would give market participants, including PSPs and merchants, certainty about what needs to be done for them to be digital euro-ready,” he said.

Beyond the pilot, he said the ECB expected by this summer to announce the European standards it would use for the digital euro, after which it would work with the market on embedding them into payment terminals.

Part of the ECB’s pitch remains that the digital euro would reinforce rather than displace domestic European payment schemes, he said. Cipollone said it could be used through co-badged cards and digital wallets, helping users pay across the euro area with a Europe-based solution while reducing dependence on international card networks.

Another strand of the project is accessibility, he observed. According to Cipollone, the ECB is working with the ONCE Foundation on the design of the digital euro app and is exploring features such as voice commands, large-font displays and simplified workflows so that the system is usable for people with disabilities or limited digital literacy.

He also said the ECB would keep working with private-sector firms on innovative uses of the digital euro, including conditional payments, offline functionality, e-receipts, bill-splitting, budget-management tools, business-to-business applications, micropayments and machine-to-machine payments.

“The Eurosystem’s role at this stage is to be ready,” Cipollone said. “Through pilot activities, our engagement with market participants and our work on standards, we are laying the necessary technical foundations.”