Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), has announced that preparations for the digital euro are expected to be completed by October 2025. However, the project still requires approval from the European Parliament, European Commission, and European Council.
Lagarde emphasized that the digital euro would be designed for both wholesale and retail use cases.
Some Members of the European Parliament have expressed skepticism regarding the ECB’s ability to successfully implement the digital euro, citing recent payment infrastructure failures — such as the T2 system outage in February, during which European banks were unable to process transactions for an entire day.
Despite these concerns, the ECB continues to develop the digital euro, viewing it as a strategic defense against foreign stablecoins and a way to reduce reliance on international payment systems.
