\n EU lawmakers on Thursday backed kickstarting negotiations on creating a digital version of the euro, as the European Union races to introduce the currency.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Issued on: 10\/07\/2026 – 21:40<\/p>\n
2 min Reading time\n<\/p>\n
The digital euro would be an electronic form of central bank money, backed directly by the European Central Bank<\/a> (ECB) and accessible via a digital wallet, intended to work alongside cash and existing bank accounts rather than replace them.<\/p>\n The project has been years in the making but the EU first needs to agree on the legal framework underpinning the virtual currency before it is available for use.<\/p>\n Lawmakers back the plan <\/p>\n A European Parliament committee had already given its green light but that approval was challenged and there was a call for an assembly vote. An overwhelming majority of lawmakers approved establishing a digital euro.<\/p>\n ECB President Christine Lagarde applauded the vote.<\/p>\n The EU believes a digital euro is the answer to cutting its addiction to US payment systems like Visa and Mastercard as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay.<\/p>\n According to a recent ECB report<\/a>, credit card payments are the main electronic payment method in the EU, but international card schemes “accounted for approximately 61 percent of euro area card transactions in 2022” while the domestic market share of national card schemes “is declining.”<\/p>\n “We depend predominantly on US, but also sometimes Chinese, networks to organise payments,” she says in an interview with Euronews<\/a>.<\/p>\n “We need to have a European solution because we want to be sovereign at home,” she said.<\/p>\n