Austrian digital rights group Epicenter.works and other civil society organizations said the digital euro’s privacy guarantees “rely too heavily on institutional assurances rather than technical enforcement,” in a joint statement earlier this month. Legislative promises, they warned, can be weakened in implementation, reinterpreted in court, or simply broken.
Cipollone went further with privacy reassurances, saying payments conducted offline would take place directly between individuals, with details known only to the payer and the payee, equivalent to a cash transaction. Only banks involved in online transactions would be able to identify users, and only for anti-money laundering purposes, he added.
He also pushed back on fears that the digital euro would replace physical cash. He pointed to the ECB’s recently launched public consultation on the design of new euro banknotes as evidence of the institution’s commitment to keeping cash in circulation. “It wouldn’t make any sense to do this if it were planning to get rid of cash,” he said.
His comments follow the European Parliament’s approval of the digital euro regulation last month, which is scheduled for rollout in 2029. ECB President Christine Lagarde recently told Europeans that the digital euro and physical cash would coexist.
