Forty-eight EU lawmakers added a passage in support of the digital euro in an annual report on the European Central Bank (ECB) that will be voted on Tuesday.
Although the document has no legislative effect, the vote on the amendment will publicly show where support for the digital euro stands.
The digital euro would be an electronic form of cash issued by the ECB, and would serve as an additional form of payment supplementing the cash and cards issued by commercial banks.
Unlike everyday card payments, where payments are “private”, the digital euro would allow citizens a direct use of digital “public” money, now mainly available in the form of cash.
Under the European Commission’s proposal, the digital euro would include a digital wallet that could be used both online and offline, with payments not trackable.
The digital euro proposal has surged in importance thanks to economic tensions between the EU and the US, offering as it does an alternative to Visa and Mastercard, the two US-based payment systems used in everyday life by most Europeans.
EU’s legislative politics
The proposal has already been backed by EU countries in the Council, leaving the Parliament as the last co-legislator to take a position on the file.
However, the Parliament is experiencing a political deadlock, with the MEPs working on the proposal having difficulty agreeing on a common vision for the digital euro’s design.
In particular, the leading rapporteur on the file, centre-right Spanish MEP Fernando Navarrete, is proposing to reduce the digital euro’s scope, for instance by designing it solely for offline use. In that scenario, the digital euro would not be an alternative means of payment to Visa and Mastercard.
While the centre-right European People’s Party will likely be divided over the proposal in the vote, many far-right parties have expressed sharp disagreement to the proposal. Last week, the Spanish far-right party Vox asked the European Commission to withdraw it altogether.
In the passage that will be voted on Tuesday seen by Euronews, signatories ask for support for “an online and offline digital euro” that “should contribute to safeguarding universal access to payments” and not rely on solely private and non-European providers.
The signatories describes the design and the scope of the digital euro as in the European Commission proposal: “a complement to cash and private banking services […] to strengthen European monetary sovereignty, reduce fragmentation in retail payments and support the integrity and resilience of the single market”.
Supporters of the amendment
The passage in the report, which supports the original proposal of the European Commission with a larger scope for the digital euro, was proposed by Italian MEP Pasquale Tridico of the Five Stars Movement, which currently sits in The Left group at the European Parliament.
“Today we are totally dependent on the big American players – Visa and Mastercard – and this makes the EU weak and dependent on Trump’s decisions,” Tridico told Euronews, adding that delays and boycotts by minorities at the European Parliament are “counterproductive”.
“If the American president woke up one day and decide to cut Europeans off from digital payment circuits, European citizens would no longer be able to make purchases using credit cards, which are by far the most widely used means of payment today.”
The amendment in support of the digital euro has attracted the support of MEPs from several political groups, including the centre-right European People’s Party, the Socialists and Democrats, Renew Europe, the Greens and The Left.
Brothers of Italy, the party of the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), will vote in favour of the amendment, according to a Parliament official who spoke to Euronews in condition of anonymity.
At the time of publication, no other MEPs from ECR, Patriots for Europe or Europe of Sovereign Nations have expressed support.