The economic sovereignty that the euro guarantees to Europe could “be threatened” if Europe does not adopt the digital euro, believes the governor of the Banque de France.
The governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, speaks at the European Banking Congress at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, on November 22, 2024. (Photo: Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)
Paris – “Launched more than 25 years ago, the euro represents Europe’s greatest step forward towards sovereignty and a huge popular success, supported by 82% of European citizens. But today, this hard‑won achievement could be threatened if we do not secure the pivotal role of +sovereign+ central bank money in the digital world,” François Villeroy de Galhau said on Tuesday.
The Eurosystem has already “taken steps to offer a digital euro to the general public” which aims to “issue a +digital banknote+ designed to transpose the characteristics of cash into the digital world, while preserving the anchoring role of central bank money,” he said at a conference in Paris.
Last month, “the Council of the European Union unanimously supported this project and agreed on a genuine digital euro covering both online and offline use cases.” After the expected vote in the European Parliament in May, a pilot project should be carried out as early as 2027 and the digital euro could be launched in 2029, according to the governor. (6 January 2026)