ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone delivered a public lecture in Riga on 1 April 2026, outlining how the digital euro could strengthen Europe’s payment resilience and autonomy. He noted that Latvia’s 2014 adoption of the euro was a sovereign choice that tied the country’s identity to European institutions. Cipollone warned that current payments rely heavily on non‑European card schemes, with two‑thirds of euro‑area card transactions governed by foreign rules, creating risks of disconnection, extraterritorial reach and market power concentration. The digital euro, he said, would be legal‑tender digital cash, available online and offline, and would reduce dependence on external providers, prevent service outages, and lower merchant costs. The ECB also announced a comprehensive payments strategy, including tokenised central‑bank money through the Pontes and Appia projects, to support a European‑governed payment infrastructure.
© European Central Bank, 2025.
Summary derived from the ECB website (https://www.ecb.europa.eu ).
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