What changed between the draft committee report of 9 Feb 2024 and the draft committee report of 3 Nov 2025

Removed:Recital 63: (63) To enable a smooth user experience, payment service providers that provide Digital Euro users with front-end services to access and use the Digital Euro should take care that Digital Euro users can quickly and easily access and use the Digital Euro. In particular, Digital Euro wallets should be clearly labelled by the use of the official Digital Euro logo. Digital Euro wallets should be accessed via one the main pages of the Internet website or an application, or any other front-end services, on an equal footing with non-Digital Euro payment accounts.

Added:Recital 24: (24) Account servicing payment service providers under Directive (EU) 2015/2366 should provide funding and defunding services to their clients, regardless of their ability to provide the liquidity source for those funds in central bank money. At the request of their clients, in view of successfully carrying out funding and defunding services, account servicing to payment service providers that are allowed to have an account at the central bank should provide account servicing payment service providers that are not allowed to have an account at the central bank with access to payment systems, and similarly should pass through the settlement infrastructure the transfer orders of the account servicing payment service providers that are not allowed to have an account at the central bank, in an objective, proportionate and non-discriminatory manner.

Removed:Recital 64: (64) To provide for instantaneous settlement, both online and offline Digital Euro transactions, including in the context of funding and defunding, and as waterfall and reverse waterfall functionalities, should be settled instantaneously, in a few seconds only, in normal circumstances. The settlement of online Digital Euro payment transactions should be performed in the Digital Euro transfer infrastructure adopted by the Eurosystem. Online Digital Euro payment transactions should be settled in a matter of seconds as specified under the functional and technical requirements adopted by the European Central Bank. Final settlement of online Digital Euro payment transactions should be achieved at the moment of recording the Digital Euros concerned of the payer and the payee in the Digital Euro transfer infrastructure approved by the European Central Bank, irrespective of whether Digital Euros are recorded as holding balances or units of value, or of the technology used. The Digital Euro transfer infrastructure should seek to ensure adaptation to new technologies, including distributed ledger technology.

Added:Recital 25: (25) For the purpose of properly enforcing any limits on the use of the digital euro decided upon by the Commission when on-boarding digital euro users, or during ex-post checks where appropriate, payment service providers in charge of distributing the digital euro should verify whether their prospective or existing customer already has digital euro payment accounts. The European Central Bank may support payment service providers in performing the task of enforcing any limits, including by establishing jointly with national central banks a single access point of digital euro user identifiers and the related digital euro holding limits. The European Central Bank should implement appropriate technical and organisational measures, including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures, to ensure that the identity of individual online digital euro users cannot be linked with the information in the single access point by entities other than payment service providers whose client or potential customer is the digital euro user. The European Central Bank should be controller to the extent that these activities require processing of personal data.

Removed:Recital 67: (67) For reasons of contractual freedom and to ensure competition, Digital Euro users should have the possibility to switch their Digital Euro wallets to different payment service providers. At the request of the Digital Euro users, payment service providers should then enable the switching of the Digital Euro wallets, while maintaining the same wallet identifiers. In exceptional circumstances where a payment service provider is unable to perform this task, including due to having lost the relevant Digital Euro wallet-related data, the European Central Bank should be able to authorise the switching of Digital Euro wallets so that the new payment service provider designated by the Digital Euro user can retrieve the information about the Digital Euro holdings of the Digital Euro user and complete the switching without relying on the unavailable payment service provider. This process should allow a Digital Euro user to then continue accessing its Digital Euro holdings via the new designated payment service provider. The European Central Bank would not have any operational role in the switching of wallets.

Added:Recital 26: (26) To support universal access to the online digital euro by the general public in the euro area, and to foster innovation and a high level of competition in the retail payment market, all the relevant intermediaries should be able to distribute the online digital euro. All account servicing payment service providers under Directive (EU) 2015/2366, including credit institutions, electronic money institutions, payment institutions, post office giro institutions which are entitled under national law to provide payment services, the European Central Bank and national central banks of Member States whose currency is the euro, as part of the Eurosystem, when not acting in their capacity as monetary authority or other public authorities, and Member States or their regional or local authorities when not acting in their capacity as public authorities should be able to provide online digital euro payment accounts and the related online digital euro payment services, regardless of their location in the European Economic Area. Crypto asset services providers regulated under Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of the European Parliament and of the Council29 that are account servicing payment service providers under Directive (EU) 2015/2366 should also be allowed to distribute the digital euro. In accordance with Directive (EU) 2015/2366, account servicing payment service providers should be obliged to provide access to data on payment accounts to payment initiation and account information servic…

Removed:Recital 74: (74) Any processing of personal data to verify whether users are listed persons or entities pursuant to restrictive measures adopted in accordance with Article 215 TFEU should be in line with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Processing of the names and the wallet identifiers of natural persons is proportionate and necessary to ensure the compliance with restrictive measures adopted in accordance with Article 215 TFEU providing for asset freeze or prohibition of making funds or economic resources available.

Added:Recital 27: (27) In case the availability of the digital euro were contingent upon free business decisions by all payment service providers, the digital euro could be marginalised or even excluded by the payment service providers. That could prevent users from paying and receiving payments in a form of currency endowed with the status of legal tender. In that case, the singleness in the use of the digital euro throughout the euro area required by Article 133 TFEU, would not be guaranteed. It is therefore essential that designated payment service providers be required to distribute basic digital euro services.

Removed:Recital 75: (75) Offline Digital Euro payment transactions are payments that occur in close physical proximity (“face-to-face”). They have similarities with transactions in cash and should be treated in a similar way in terms of privacy. Payment service providers should therefore not process personal data related to offline Digital Euro payment transactions, but only personal data related to depositing or withdrawing Digital Euros from Digital Euro wallets to load them onto the local storage devices, or from the local storage devices into the Digital Euro wallets This includes the identifier of the local storage devices which payment service providers attribute to a Digital Euro user that holds offline Digital Euro. That level of privacy would be comparable to withdrawals of banknotes at automatic teller machines when payment service providers process personal data related to a user’s identity and data pertaining to how funding and defunding transactions have been carried out. That means that no transaction data monitoring should occur for offline Digital Euro payment transactions.

Added:Recital 28: (28) A requirement to distribute the digital euro should be proportionate to the objective of ensuring an effective use of the digital euro as a legal tender means of payment. Restricting that obligation to credit institutions that are already active in retail business services would ensure the effectiveness of legal tender status, while avoiding putting a disproportionate burden on payment service providers with specialised, non-consumer oriented business models. The obligation to distribute the digital euro is therefore limited to credit institutions providing payment account services at the request of their clients. This is without prejudice to the application of Chapter IV of the Payment Account Directive on access to payment account with basic features to the access to online digital euro account with basic features to consumers which are not client of a credit institution.

Removed:Recital 77: (77) For the purpose of enforcing the holding limits and ensuring the exceptional switching of Digital Euro wallets in emergency situations upon the request of the Digital Euro user, a single access point of Digital Euro user identifiers and the related Digital Euro holding limits is necessary to ensure the efficient functioning of the Digital Euro across the entire euro area, as Digital Euro users may hold Digital Euro wallets in different Member States. When establishing the single access point, the European Central Bank and national central banks should ensure that the processing of personal data is minimised to what is strictly necessary and that data protection by design and by default is embedded. The European Central Bank and national central banks should consider, where appropriate and to minimise the risk of data breaches, the use of decentralised data storage.

Added:Recital 29: (29) To ensure a wide usage of the digital euro, including for persons with disabilities, functional limitations or limited digital skills, and elderly persons, it is essential that public entities, including local or regional authorities, or postal offices, provide basic digital payment services and digital inclusion support. For that purpose, Member States should designate entities that should carry out that task within their territory. Such entities, as payment services providers under Directive (EU) 2015/2366, should comply with the provisions of this Regulation, including Directive (EU) 2015/2366 and Directive (EU) 2015/849.

Removed:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 9: 9. ‘payer’ means anyone who has a Digital Euro wallet and allows a payment order from that Digital Euro wallet;

Added:Recital 34: (34) Digital euro users should have the choice to use the digital euro either on its online or offline forms, or eventually both, subject to the limits set respectively by the Commission. The payment service providers should register and de-register the offline digital euro device for offline digital euro payment transactions of their customers. The payment service providers should only store the identifier of the offline digital euro device used for offline digital euro for the duration of facilitating the provision of offline digital euro to their customers. The payment service providers should implement appropriate technical and organisational measures including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures to ensure that the identifier of the offline digital euro device of individual digital euro users cannot be used for other purposes other than for the purpose of the provision of offline digital euro.

Removed:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 11: 11. ‘funding’ means the process whereby a Digital Euro user acquires Digital Euros, in exchange for either cash or other funds, creating a means of payment (Digital Euro) with legal tender status, representing a liability item in the balance sheet of the European Central Bank or a national central bank towards that Digital Euro user;

Added:Recital 35: (35) The payment service providers should register and re-register the offline digital euro device for offline digital euro payment transactions of their customers. The payment service providers should only store the identifier of the offline digital euro device used for offline digital euro for the duration of facilitating the provision of offline digital euro to their customers. The payment service providers should implement appropriate technical and organisational measures including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures to ensure that the identifier of the offline digital euro device of individual digital euro users cannot be compared with the information about the digital euro user in order to identify the data subject, except for the purpose of Article 37.

Removed:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 13 a (new): 13a. ‘online Digital Euro’ means a Digital Euro transfer that is always recorded in an infrastructure;

Added:Recital 36: (36) The digital euro should allow for a smooth payment experience. Any instruments that the Commission might employ to limit the digital euro’s store of value function should take this objective into account. Automated mechanisms that link a digital euro payment account with a non-digital euro payment account should allow for an uninhibited payment functionality of online the digital euro, by ensuring that transactions are successfully executed in the presence of individual digital euro holding limits that may become binding on the payer’s or payee’s side. In particular, an online digital euro users should be able to initiate a digital euro payment transaction even though the amount of their digital euro holdings is inferior to the amount of the transaction, by automatically mobilising funds from a non-digital euro payment account to complement the transaction amount (‘reverse waterfall functionality’). Conversely, online digital euro users should be able to receive digital euro payment transactions even though the amount of the transaction exceeds the limit set on their digital euro holdings, by automatically transferring funds in excess of the limit to a non-digital euro payment account (‘waterfall functionality’). Such payment functionalities should be expressly authorized by online digital euro users. However, in order not to create disproportional burdens on payment service providers, online digital users should be allowed to automatically fund or defund their online di…

Removed:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 13 b (new): 13b. ‘offline Digital Euro’ means a Digital Euro registered in local storage devices;

Added:Recital 37: (37) While instruments employed by the Commission to limit an excessive use of the digital euro as a store of value aim at safeguarding financial stability and financial intermediation, they may nonetheless impact on and interact with the European Central Bank’s monetary policy stance. Such instruments would therefore need to be applied uniformly across the euro area in order to ensure the use of the digital euro as a single currency and the singleness of the monetary policy. Furthermore, a uniform application would be necessary to ensure a level playing field for payment service providers in the European single market or avoid an overly complex enforcement of any instrument through payment service providers on the basis of digital euro users’ residency. Within the framework of this Regulation, the digital euro should not bear interest for the purposes of primarily using the digital euro as a means of payment while limiting its use as a store of value.

Removed:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 14: 14. ‘online Digital Euro payment transaction’ means a Digital Euro payment transaction where the transfer takes place with records in a transfer record;

Added:Recital 39: (39) Any limits to the store of value function that the Commission decided on should be binding on and implemented by the payment service providers distributing the digital euro. To avoid any potential risk to financial stability, digital euro holdings should be limited and maintained to the threshold which allows the use of the digital euro as a digital form of cash, in accordance with the principle of proportionality. For such purposes, legal persons should not maintain any holding limits, considering in particular the possibility of automatic defund from their offline digital euro devices to non-digital euro payment accounts, except in in the event of temporary network disruptions due to force majeure events in which they might be able to maintain holding without limits. As for natural persons, a delegated act, substantiated on technical grounds by a European Central Bank and Commission reports, will set the initial holding limits. While an online digital euro user may have one or more digital euro payment accounts at the same payment service provider or at different payment service providers, they should be subject to an individual holding limit that a digital euro user may allocate across different payment services providers. Payment service providers may offer online digital euro users the possibility to legally have a joint digital euro payment account. In this case, any holding limit applied to the joint digital euro payment account should be equal to the sum of the a…

Removed:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 19: 19. the ‘Digital Euro transfer infrastructure’ means the transfer infrastructure of the Digital Euro adopted by the Eurosystem;

Added:Recital 41 a (new): (41a) Payment service providers will have to make significant investments to integrate with the European Central Bank’s back-end for the provision of the online digital euro, which should be adequately compensated. The provision of the offline digital euro will involve lower investment costs for payment service providers, as no connection to the European Central Bank’s back-end is needed due to the absence of a central digital euro settlement infrastructure.

Removed:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 25: 25. ‘comparable digital means of payment’ means digital means of payment, including debit card payments, credit card payments and instant payments at the point of interaction but excluding credit transfer and direct debit that are not initiated at the point of interaction;

Added:Recital 42: (42) As the digital euro is a form of the single currency having legal tender status, digital euro payment transactions should not be subject to excessive fees by payment service providers. In particular, granting the digital euro legal tender status, with the corollary of mandatory acceptance, means that merchants would have no choice but to accept digital euro payment transactions. Moreover, as payment services providers distributing the digital euro would not be in a position to charge fees to natural persons for basic digital euro payment services, an inter-PSP fee will be needed to provide compensation to those payment service providers for the distribution costs. It is therefore essential that a fee or a charge be objectively justified and proportionate to the objective of ensuring an effective use of the digital euro as a legal tender means of payment.

Removed:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 26: 26. ‘switching’ means, upon a Digital Euro user’s request, transferring from one payment service provider to another either the information about all or some Digital Euro payment services, including recurring payments, executed on a Digital Euro wallet, or the Digital Euro holdings from one Digital Euro wallet to the other, or both, with or without closing the former Digital Euro wallet, while maintaining the same wallet identifier;

Added:Recital 43: (43) In order to avoid the legal tender obligation leading to higher acceptance costs caps should be based either on relevant cost of the distributing payment service providers for the provision of basic digital euro payment services for the inter-PSP fee and relevant costs of the acquiring payment service providers for the provision of basic acquiring services for the merchant service charge, or on comparable means of payment, with the lower of the two determining the cap for the inter-PSP fee and the merchant service charge after a transitional period. However, a cost-based cap lacks reliable and sufficiently stable data on unit costs during the adoption ramp up period in the first years after the issuance of the digital euro until the level of digital euro transaction stabilises. A transitional period should therefore be provided for. The transitional period should last for at least 10 years to provide enough certainty to all market participants about the adoption by citizens of digital euro services and, thus, unit costs.

Removed:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 29: 29. ‘user authentication’ means a unique piece of information created by the payment service provider distributing the Digital Euro that together with the user identifier allows a Digital Euro user to prove ownership of the online Digital Euro holdings recorded in the Digital Euro transfer infrastructure, technical features of which allow a Digital Euro user to proof his holdings on its own, especially without a transfer infrastructure, as well as without payment service provider or any other third party;

Added:Recital 44: (44) During the transitional period, fees or charges should not be higher than those requested for comparable private digital means of payment. International card schemes regulated under Regulation (EU) 2015/751 of the European Parliament and the Council30, national card schemes, and instant payments at the point of interaction provided by payment service providers should be considered comparable means of payments.

Removed:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 31 a (new): 31a. ‘Governance Body of the Digital Euro rulebook’ means the institutional setting responsible for determining standards and rules required for facilitating Digital Euro payment services;

Added:Recital 45: (45) At the level of the individual merchant or payment service providers, no merchant or payment service provider should be charged higher fees compared to acquiring or distributing services for comparable digital means of payment that the payment service provider provides to the payee when receiving basic acquiring services or distributing the digital euro.

Removed:Article 4 a (new): Article 4a / The use of the Digital Euro under EU Digital Finance Framework / In accordance with the Treaties, the European Central Bank and the national central banks shall seek to ensure the smooth functioning of the payments and systems between financial intermediaries, payment service providers and other market participants to support the use of central bank money for financial market infrastructure activities under the Regulation (EU) 2022/858 of the European Parliament and the Council1 and Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. / 1 Regulation (EU) 2022/858 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2022 on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology, and amending Regulations (EU) No 600/2014 and (EU) No 909/2014 and Directive 2014/65/EU (OJ L 151, 2.6.2022, p. 1).

Added:Recital 45 a (new): (45a) In order to ensure a transparent and level playing field between payment service providers and to avoid any hidden or duplicative costs for merchants, the total fees charged for digital euro payment transactions should be aggregated into a single merchant service charge. That merchant service charge should represent the totality of costs applied by payment service providers for acquiring services and should be expressed as a percentage of the total value of transactions processed over a given period, irrespective of the underlying pricing model. Payment service providers should not apply additional charges to merchants for automatic defunding operations related to digital euro payment accounts, where such transactions are executed with non-digital-euro payment accounts held with the same provider.

Removed:Article 4 b (new): Article 4b / Separation of the supervisory and Digital Euro tasks of the European Central Bank / 1. A clear separation shall be established between the monetary, supervisory and payment systems oversight tasks of the European Central Bank in accordance with Articles 119 to 144, 219 and 282 to 284 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and its activities in relation to the Digital Euro payment system. / 2. For the purpose of paragraph 1, a dedicated unit shall be established within the European Central Bank. This unit shall have exclusive competence to carry out the tasks of the European Central Bank related to the operation and management of a Digital Euro payment system and infrastructure. / 3. The unit referred to in paragraph 2 shall be independent in terms of accounting, organisation, and decision-making processes.

Added:Recital 45 b (new): (45b) The inter-PSP fee should provide sufficient compensation for the distribution costs of the distributing service providers.

Removed:Article 5 – title: Applicable law and governance

Added:Recital 46: deleted

Removed:Article 5 – paragraph 2: 2. Within the framework of this Regulation, the Digital Euro shall also be governed by the detailed design features, rules and standards that may be adopted by the European Central Bank pursuant to its own competences. Where these detailed design features, rules and standards have an impact on the protection of individuals’ rights and freedom with regard to the processing of personal data, the European Central Bank shall consult the European Data Protection Supervisor prior to their adoption.

Added:Recital 47: (47) An excessive distribution of the digital euro outside the euro area could have an unwanted impact on the size and composition of the consolidated balance sheet of the European Central Bank and national central banks. Impacts on monetary sovereignty and financial stability of non-euro area countries may also differ depending on the use of the digital euro outside the euro area. Those impacts could be harmful in case the digital euro replaces the local currency in a high number of domestic transactions. In particular, a situation in which the digital euro becomes dominant in a Member State whose currency is not the euro, thus de facto replacing the national currency, could interfere with the euro area adoption criteria and process set out in Article 140 TFEU. To avoid undesirable effects and prevent monetary sovereignty and financial stability risks, both within and outside the euro area, it is necessary to provide for the possibility for the Union to conclude agreements with third countries, and for the European Central Bank to conclude arrangements with the national central banks of Member States whose currency is not the euro and with the national central banks of third countries, to specify the conditions for the regular provision of digital euro payment services to digital euro users residing or established outside the euro area. Such agreements and arrangements should not cover visitors to the euro area, to whom payment service providers established in the European E…

Removed:Article 5 – paragraph 2 a (new): 2a. The European Central Bank shall support the establishment of the Governance Body of the Digital Euro rulebook. Its membership rules, internal organisation, and decision-making processes shall: / (a) reflect the structure and needs of the market for payment services; / (b) be aligned with established and evolving modes of self-regulation in the market for payment services and; / (c) be limited to facilitating requirements for interoperability according to the provisions of this Regulation, in particular as regards to points (a) to (d) of Annex I and point (e) of Annex II.

Added:Recital 51: (51) The use of the digital euro in cross-currency payments would facilitate cross-border payments for the purpose of trade or remittances, in line with the G20 agenda.

Removed:Article 5 – paragraph 3: 3. In accordance with Article 4(25) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 25 November 2015, on payment services in the internal market, as replaced by Directive (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for a Directive on payment services and electronic money services in the internal market - COM/2023/366 final] and Regulation (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for a Regulation on payment services in the internal market - COM/2023/367 final] of the European Parliament and of the Council, of XX/XX/2023, the provisions of that Directive shall apply to Digital Euro payment transactions, where appropriate.

Added:Recital 54: (54) The technical design of the digital euro should make it widely accessible to and usable by the general public. That design should, in particular, support access to financially excluded persons or persons at risk of financial exclusion, persons with disabilities by ensuring compliance with accessibility requirements laid down in Annex I of Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and the Council32 (European Accessibility Act), persons with functional limitations who would also benefit from accessibility, or persons with limited digital skills and elderly persons. For that purpose, the digital euro should have usage features that are simple and easy to handle, and should be sufficiently accessible through a wide range of hardware devices to cater for the needs of different groups of the population. Furthermore, payment service providers should provide digital euro users with digital euro payment services, regardless of those users holding non-digital euro payment accounts. In addition, those users should be allowed to have online digital euro payment accounts with payment service providers that are different from the ones with which they have non-digital euro payment accounts.

Removed:Article 9 – paragraph 1 – point a: (a) where the payee does not accept comparable digital means of payment;

Added:Recital 55: (55) The online digital euro should support conditional digital euro payment transactions by payment service providers. The digital euro should, however, not be “programmable money”, which means units that, due to intrinsically defined spending conditions, can only be used for buying specific types of goods or services, or are subject to time limits after which they are no longer usable. Conditional payment transactions are payments which are automatically triggered by software based on pre-defined and agreed conditions. Conditional payments should not have, as object or effect, the use of digital euro as programmable money. Payment service providers could develop different types of logic to offer a range of conditional payment transactions to online digital euro users, such as automated payment transactions for placing or withdrawing digital euros, payment standing orders that trigger automatic payments of a specific amount on a specific date, and payments between machines where those machines are programmed to automatically trigger payments for their own spare parts upon ordering them, for charging and paying electricity at most favourable market conditions, for paying insurance, and leasing and maintenance fees on a usage basis.

Removed:Article 13 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point b: (b) natural and legal persons who opened a Digital Euro wallet at the time they resided or were established in the Member States whose currency is the euro, but no longer reside or are established in such Member States;

Added:Recital 56: (56) To facilitate the use of the online digital euro and the provision of innovative services, the Eurosystem should support the provision of conditional digital euro payment transactions. First, some types of conditional payment services could be supported through detailed measures, rules and standards that could help payment service providers to develop and operate interoperable applications that execute conditional logic. That could include a set of technical tools such as application programming interfaces. Second, the Eurosystem could provide additional functionalities in the digital euro settlement infrastructure, necessary for the provision of conditional payment services to digital euro users. That could facilitate the reservation of funds in the settlement infrastructure for future execution of some conditional payments. Payment service providers should adapt the business logic for conditional digital euro payment transactions in accordance with the standards and application programming interfaces which the Eurosystem may adopt to facilitate such transactions.

Removed:Article 13 – paragraph 2: 2. Payment service providers that provide servicing payment services within the meaning of Directive 2015/2366 shall enable Digital Euro users to fund and defund their Digital Euro wallet from or to payment accounts denominated in euro, or euro banknotes and coins when a payment services provider provides cash services, subject to any limitations that the European Central Bank may adopt in accordance with Article 16 of this Regulation.

Added:Recital 57: (57) European Digital Identity Wallets could facilitate digital transactions by enabling authentication, identification and the exchange of attributes including licenses and certificates. European Digital Identity Wallets should contribute to the effective universal access to and use of the online digital euro. Member States should issue European Digital Identity Wallets based on common standards and practices set out in the implementing legislation. The European Digital Identity Wallet should have strong and specific safeguards to ensure data protection and privacy and high-level security certification. Front-end solutions to be developed by the European Central Bank should therefore duly consider the technical specifications governing the European Digital Identity Wallets. This would enable the relevant interoperability with the European Digital Identity Wallets that would allow to capitalise on these benefits. Based on user choice, interoperability with the European Digital Identity Wallet should also allow to discharge customer due diligence under Regulation (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for a Regulation for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation – COM/2021/421 final). Furthermore, to achieve a coherent customer experience, intermediaries might choose to fully integrate their online digital euro front-end services into the specifications governing the European Digital Identity Wallets.

Removed:Article 13 – paragraph 4 – subparagraph 2: For the purpose of points (a) and (b), and upon prior approval by the Digital Euro users, payment service providers shall link each Digital Euro wallet to a single payment account denominated in euro designated by the Digital Euro users. Digital Euro users shall be allowed to have that designated payment account with a different payment service provider than the one where a given Digital Euro wallet is held.

Added:Recital 58: (58) Users should be able, if they so wish, to onboard and authorise payments with the digital euro by using the European Digital Identity Wallets. Payment service providers should therefore be obliged to accept the European Digital Identity Wallets for the verification of both prospective and existing customers’ identities, in line with Regulation (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for a Regulation for Anti-Money Laundering Regulation – COM/2021/421 final). To facilitate the opening of online digital euro accounts across the Union, payment service providers should also be able to rely on qualified attestations provided by the European Digital Identity Wallets, including for the remote performance of customer due diligence. Payment service providers should also accept the use of European Digital Identity Wallets if the payer wishes to use the wallet for payment authorisation of online digital euro payment transactions.

Removed:Article 13 – paragraph 6: 6. For the purpose of Digital Euro payment services, Digital Euro users shall only enter into a contractual relationship with PSPs. Digital Euro users shall not have any contractual relationship with the European Central Bank or the national central banks. This provision shall be without prejudice to the liability of the European Central Bank or national central banks for any incidents related to the matters under their control, including but not limited to the transaction of a Digital Euro, system failures or non-compliance with principles, standards and the requirements applicable to the operations of payment systems and data protection.

Added:Recital 59: (59) To facilitate a harmonised user experience, the digital euro rules, standards and processes that the European Central Bank may adopt pursuant to its own competences, should ensure that any digital euro user is able to carry out digital euro payment transactions with any other digital euro users across the euro area regardless of the payment service providers involved and the front-end services used. To reduce the fragmentation of the European retail payments market, and to support competition, efficiency and innovation in that market, and the development of payment instruments across the Union in keeping with the objective of the Commission’s retail payment strategy, the digital euro should be, to the extent possible, compatible with private digital payment solutions, especially those underpinned by instant payments, building on functional and technical synergies. In particular, the European Central Bank should seek to ensure that the digital euro is compatible with private digital payment solutions at the point of interaction, e-commerce, and in person-to-person payments, where the fragmentation of the Union retail payments market is currently significant. The use of open standards, protocols, common rules and processes governing private digital means of payment and possibly shared infrastructures could support such compatibility. In order to achieve these objectives, and without conferring any enforceable rights upon market operators, the European Central Bank should s…

Removed:Article 13 a (new): Article 13a / ECB back-end interfaces / The European Central Bank shall have in place an interface for the purpose of enabling eligible distributing payment service providers to obtain holdings in Digital Euro wallets of a Digital Euro user and to initiate payments on behalf of the Digital Euro user.

Added:Recital 60: (60) To facilitate dispute resolution regarding online digital euro payment transactions as well as funding and defunding operations for the offline digital euro transactions, the European Central Bank should provide payment service providers and digital euro users with technical and functional support for dispute resolution, related at least to technical and fraud (pre) disputes. Technical disputes include inter alia situations where the transaction amount differs, where there are duplicates, or where there is no authorization or pre-validation. Fraud disputes include inter alia situations of identity theft, merchant identity fraud, counterfeit goods.

Removed:Article 13 b (new): Article 13b / Standards and specifications / The European Central Bank shall ensure that the interface referred to in Article 13a uses standards of communication which are established industry or market standards.

Added:Recital 60 a (new): (60a) To ensure the coherent application of the Rulebook governing the operation of the digital euro, and in view of the European Central Bank’s role as the operator of the online digital euro infrastructure and as designer and standard-setter for the offline digital euro device, disputes among payment service providers arising from the application of that Rulebook should be decided within a single dispute-settlement function performed by the European Central Bank on a contractual basis with payment services providers distributing the digital euro. This arrangement provides for a clear allocation of responsibilities, grounded in a causal nexus between the European Central Bank’s provision of the infrastructure and application of the Rulebook and any issues arising therefrom. To safeguard impartiality, the function should operate under internal rules and a governance framework ensuring operational separation and full independence from the European Central Bank’s payment-system oversight tasks. Decisions adopted in this context should bind participating providers through their contractual commitments, without prejudice to access to judicial remedies under Union and national law.

Removed:Article 13 c (new): Article 13c / Change of standards and specifcations / The European Central Bank shall ensure that, except for emergency situations which prevent it from doing so, any change to the technical specifications referred to in Article 13a is made available to eligible payment service providers or payment service providers that have applied for the relevant authorisation, in advance and as soon as possible.

Added:Recital 61: (61) To access and use the digital euro as part of digital euro payment services, digital euro users should be provided with front-end services. Those users should have the possibility to access and use digital euro payment services via the front-end services provided by the European Central Bank. In this respect, payment service providers should have capacity to provide digital euro users with the possibility to access and use digital euro payment services via the front-end services provided by the European Central Bank. Payment service providers should be able to allow digital euro users to access and use digital euro payment services through their own front-end solutions. Where digital euro users can choose between different front-end services, the decision to select a given front-end service should ultimately rest in the hands of those users and should not be imposed by payment service providers or the European Central Bank. The European Central Bank and the payment service providers shall implement appropriate technical and organisational measures including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures to ensure that the identity of individual digital euro users cannot be accessed by the ECB via its front-end solution.

Removed:Article 14 – paragraph 3 – point a: (a) provide basic Digital Euro payment services to natural persons referred to in Article 13(1)(a) that do not hold or do not wish to hold a payment account denominated in euro;

Added:Recital 64: (64) To provide for instantaneous settlement, both online and offline digital euro transactions, including in the context of funding and defunding, should be settled instantaneously, in a few seconds only, in normal circumstances. The settlement of online digital euro payment transactions should be performed in the digital euro settlement infrastructure adopted by the Eurosystem. Online digital euro payment transactions should be settled in a matter of seconds as specified under the functional and technical requirements adopted by the European Central Bank. Final settlement of online digital euro payment transactions should be achieved at the moment of recording the digital euros concerned of the payer and the payee in the digital euro settlement infrastructure approved by the European Central Bank, irrespective of whether digital euros are recorded as holding balances or units of value, or of the technology used. The online digital euro settlement infrastructure should seek to ensure adaptation to new technologies, including distributed ledger technology.

Removed:Article 14 – paragraph 4: 4. Payment service providers referred to in paragraphs 1 to 3 shall provide digital inclusion support to persons with disabilities, functional limitations or limited digital skills, and elderly persons. Without prejudice to paragraph 3, point (b), digital inclusion support shall comprise a dedicated assistance for onboarding to a Digital Euro wallet and using all basic Digital Euro services.

Added:Recital 65: (65) The settlement of offline digital euro payment transactions should be performed without the need for a digital euro settlement infrastructure. Offline digital euro payment transactions should be settled in a matter of seconds as specified under the functional and technical requirements adopted by the European Central Bank. Final settlement should occur at the moment when the funds in the payer’s offline digital euro device are directly transferred to the payee’s offline digital euro device without any intermediation of any payment service provider or the digital euro settlement infrastructure.

Removed:Article 15 – paragraph 2: 2. With a view to ensuring an effective use of the Digital Euro as a legal tender means of payment, and to avoiding excessive charges for merchants subject to the obligation to accept the Digital Euro under Chapter II while providing compensation for the relevant costs incurred by payment services providers for the provision of Digital Euro payments, payment service providers may charge appropriate charges or fees to be paid by natural persons or merchants to payment service providers, or between payment service providers, shall be subject to limits.

Added:Recital 67: (67) For reasons of contractual freedom and to ensure competition, digital euro users should have the possibility to switch their online digital euro payment accounts to different payment service providers. At the request of the online digital euro users, payment service providers should then enable the switching of the online digital euro payment accounts, while maintaining the same account identifiers. In exceptional circumstances where a payment service provider is unable to perform this task, including due to having lost the relevant digital euro payment account-related data, the European Central Bank should be able to authorise the switching of digital euro payment accounts so that the new payment service provider designated by the digital euro user can retrieve the information about the digital euro holdings of the online digital euro user and complete the switching without relying on the unavailable payment service provider. This process should allow an online digital euro user to then continue accessing its digital euro holdings via the new designated payment service provider. The European Central Bank would not have any operational role in the switching on account both in both going concern situations and exceptional circumstances.

Removed:Article 16 – paragraph 1: 1. For the purpose of Article 15(1), payment service providers shall define holding limits for their customers to limit the use of the Digital Euro as a store of value and shall decide on their parameters and use. The holding limit can be agreed individually between the payment service provider and the Digital Euro user, while the daily limit of cash withdrawal defined for the costumer´s debit and credit cards may be considered as a reference threshold.

Added:Recital 68: (68) The prevention of fraud by payment service providers is essential for the protection of citizens making use of the digital euro, the integrity of the personal data processed in digital euro payments, and to ensure the smooth and efficient functioning of the digital euro. Fraud prevention plays an essential role in maintaining trust in the single currency. For this purpose, the European Central Bank should establish a general fraud detection and prevention mechanism to support fraud management activities performed by payment service providers on online digital euro payment transactions. A general fraud detection and prevention mechanism delivers a range of essential functions to detect fraud patterns that a single payment service provider could not detect on its own. Often one payment service provider does not have the full picture about all elements that could lead to timely fraud detection. However, it can be made more effective with information on potentially fraudulent activity stemming from other payment service providers. This general fraud detection function exists in comparable payment schemes and is necessary to achieve demonstrably low fraud rates in order to keep the digital euro secure for both consumers and merchants. The transfer of information between PSPs and the fraud detection and prevention mechanism should be subject to state-of-the-art technical, safety and privacy-preserving measures. Individual digital euro users should not be identified by the cent…

Removed:Article 16 – paragraph 4: 4. Any holding limits on Digital Euro wallets adopted pursuant to paragraph 1 shall apply to both offline and online holdings. Where a Digital Euro user uses both an offline and online Digital Euro, the limit that applies to online Digital Euro shall equal the overall limit determined by the European Central Bank minus the holding limit for offline Digital Euro set by Digital Euro users. A Digital Euro user may set its offline holding limit at any amount between zero and the holding limit set in accordance with Article 37.

Added:Recital 69: (69) To process digital euro payments online or offline, it is essential that front end service providers for the digital euro and issuers of European Digital Identity Wallets obtain access to near field communication technology (NFC) on mobile devices. These components include, in particular but not exclusively, NFC antennas and the so-called secure elements of mobile devices (e.g.: Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC), embedded SE (eSE), and microSD etc). It is therefore necessary to ensure that whenever needed to provide digital euro services, original equipment manufacturers of mobile devices or providers of electronic communication services would not refuse access to NFC antennas and secure elements. Central bank money with legal tender should be widely accessible. To ensure this also in the digital economy, providers of front-end services for the digital euro and operators of European Digital Identity Wallets shall be entitled to store software on relevant mobile devices’ hardware in order to make transactions with digital euro technically possible both online and offline. For this purpose, original equipment manufacturers of mobile devices and providers of electronic communication services should be obliged to provide access on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms to all hardware and software components when needed for online and offline digital euro transactions. In all instances, such operators would be obliged to provide adequate capacity on relevant ha…

Removed:Article 16 – paragraph 5: 5. Visitors to the euro area as referred to in Article 13(1), point (c), and natural and legal persons as referred to in Article 13(1), points (b), (d) and (e), shall be subject to limits as regards the use of the Euro as a store of value that are not higher than the ones effectively implemented in the Euro area for natural and legal persons residing or established in Member States whose currency is the euro. The parameters and use of the instruments shall be applied in a non-discriminatory manner and uniformly across Member States whose currency is not the Euro.

Added:Recital 70: (70) The rights to privacy and personal data protection are fundamental rights enshrined in Article 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. As stressed by the European Data Protection Board34, a high standard of privacy and data protection is crucial to ensure the trust of Europeans in the future digital euro. This is also in line with the G7 Public Policy Principles for Retail Central Bank Digital Currencies. The processing of personal data for compliance and in the context of this Regulation would be carried out in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/67935 and Regulation (EU) 2018/172536, as well as, where applicable, Directive 2002/58/EC37. / 35 Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1–88). / 36 Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC (OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 39–98). / 37 Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of person…

Removed:Article 16 – paragraph 6: deleted

Added:Recital 71: (71) The digital euro should therefore be designed so as to minimise the processing of personal data by payment service providers and by the European Central Bank to what is necessary to ensure the proper functioning of the digital euro. The offline digital euro should be available with a level of privacy vis a vis payment service providers which is comparable to withdrawals of banknotes at automatic teller machines. The settlement of digital euro transactions should be designed in such a way that neither the European Central Bank nor national central banks can attribute data to an identified or identifiable digital euro user.

Removed:Article 16 – paragraph 7: 7. Where a Digital Euro wallet is held by more than one Digital Euro user, any holding limit on the related Digital Euro wallet adopted pursuant to paragraph 1 shall amount to the sum of the individual holding limits allocated to its users.

Added:Recital 73: (73) Payment service providers should be able to process personal data in so far as it is necessary to fulfil tasks that are essential to the proper functioning of the digital euro. In line with Article 6(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, processing activities should be considered lawful as regards the digital euro if and to the extent that they are necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject pursuant to this Regulation. In the framework of this regulation, the processing of personal data for the purposes of the enforcement of holding limits, the initiation of the funding and de-funding of a user’s holdings, and the management of offline digital euro devices for offline digital euro payments are tasks in the public interest that are essential for the protection of citizens making use of the digital euro as well as for the stability and integrity of the Union's financial system. Payment service providers will be the controller of personal data as regards these tasks. In addition, payment service providers may process personal data to comply with existing tasks in the public interest or for compliance with a legal obligation established in Union law that apply to the digital euro. These tasks apply to the provision of payment services and the prevention and detection of fraud in accordance with Directive (EU) 2015/2366, combatting money laundering and terrorist financing in accordance with Directive (EU) 2015/849, the fulfilment of oblig…

Removed:Article 17 – paragraph 2 – introductory part: 2. For the purpose of Article 15(2), any merchant service charge or inter-PSP fee in relation to Digital Euro payment transactions shall be set by the market participants and shall comply with the principle of proportionality.

Added:Recital 75: (75) Offline digital euro payment transactions are payments that occur either in close physical proximity (“face-to-face”) or at a distance through a digital communication link if connectivity on both devices were to be available. Offline digital euro holdings are digitally stored in the device and there is no need for accounts or settlement infrastructures to perform a transaction. These are characteristics similar to cash and should be treated in a similar way in terms of privacy. Payment service providers should therefore not process personal data related to offline digital euro payment transactions, but only personal data related to the funding or defunding of the offline digital euro device. This includes the identifier of the offline digital euro device which payment service providers attribute to a digital euro user that holds offline digital euro. That level of privacy would be comparable to withdrawals of banknotes at automatic teller machines when payment service providers process personal data related to a user’s identity and data pertaining to how funding and defunding transactions have been carried out. That means that no transaction data monitoring should occur for offline digital euro payment transactions.

Added:Recital 76: (76) The European Central Bank and national central banks may process personal data in so far as it is necessary to fulfil tasks that are essential to the proper functioning of the digital euro. In the framework of this regulation, the processing of personal data for the purposes of the settlement of digital euro payment transactions and the management of the security and integrity of the digital euro infrastructure are tasks in the public interest that are essential for the protection of citizens making use of the digital euro as well as for the stability and integrity of the Union's financial system. The task of maintaining the security and integrity of digital euro infrastructure includes activities related to ensuring the stability and operational resilience of the digital euro. The European Central Bank and national central banks would be the controller of personal data as regards these tasks. The European Central Bank and national central banks would process personal data for these tasks using state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures, such as pseudonymisation or encryption, to ensure that data cannot be used to directly or indirectly identify a specific digital euro user or link them to specific transactions.

Added:Recital 77: (77) For the purpose of enforcing the limits and ensuring the exceptional switching of digital euro payment accounts in emergency situations upon the request of the digital euro user, a single access point of digital euro user identifiers and the related digital euro holding limits is necessary to ensure the efficient functioning of the digital euro across the entire euro area, as online digital euro users may hold digital euro payment accounts in different Member States. When establishing the single access point, the European Central Bank and national central banks should ensure that the processing of personal data is minimised to what is strictly necessary and that data protection by design and by default is embedded. The European Central Bank and national central banks should consider, where appropriate and to minimise the risk of data breaches, the use of decentralised data storage.

Added:Recital 80: (80) For online digital euro payment the AML/CFT risks are similar to comparable digital means of payment. It should therefore be laid down that an online digital euro payment transaction is to be subject to Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and Regulation (EU) 2015/847 of the European Parliament and of the Council39.

Added:Recital 80 a (new): (80a) While offline digital euro payment transactions have similarities with transactions in cash and should be treated in a similar way in terms of privacy, specific holding and transaction limits for offline digital euro payment transactions are essential to mitigate their specific AML/CFT risk profile.

Added:Recital 80 b (new): (80b) The offline digital euro’s feature enabling payments with privacy levels comparable to cash also without physical proximity when connectivity is available on both ends, requires a bespoke AML regime for these offline transactions. That regime should follow a risk based approach aligned with recommendations and standards from competent international bodies in anti money laundering and counter terrorist financing, such as the Financial Action Task Force. The assessment should be proportionate to the offline digital euro’s legal tender status. Calibrating the new AML regime to that status is essential so that its use as a means of payment is not unduly restricted. A workable framework can be found in FATF Recommendation 16, point 8, which provides for a simplified AML framework that departs from the traditional “travel rule” by establishing a de minimis threshold. This approach is already reflected in Union law in Article 19(7) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 of the European Parliament and of the Council1a, which allows a full or partial exemption from requirements for certain products, regardless of the distance between payer and payee, subject to a maximum amount. The Commission should develop this bespoke AML/CFT regime in consultation with AMLA. / 1a Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2024 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing (OJ L, 2024/1624, 19.6.20…

Added:Recital 82: deleted

Added:Recital 82 a (new): (82a) In order to ensure a consistent application of the legal tender requirements and keep pace with technological developments, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission to supplement this Regulation by adopting delegated acts in respect of additional exceptions to mandatory acceptance and the types of personal data processed by payment services providers, the European Central Bank and the national central bank and providers of support services. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level. The Commission, when preparing and drawing up delegated acts, should ensure a simultaneous, timely and appropriate transmission of relevant documents to the European Parliament and to the Council.

Added:Recital 85: (85) The European Data Protection Supervisor and the European Data Protection Board were consulted in accordance with Article 42 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council41 and delivered a joint opinion on 17 of October 2023.

Added:Article 1 – paragraph 1: This Regulation establishes the digital euro and lays down rules concerning, in particular, its issuance, legal tender status, distribution, use and essential technical features.

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1: 1. ‘digital euro’ means the digital form of the single currency, both offline and online, available to natural and legal persons;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1 a (new): 1a. “offline digital euro” means a non account-based, digital representation of cash issued by the European Central Bank that is digitally stored and accessible through an offline digital euro device, and that can be digitally and securely transferred to another offline digital euro device without the need for a centralised digital euro settlement infrastructure for final settlement of the transactions, and that can operate even if one or both offline digital euro devices temporarily or permanently have no internet connectivity;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1 b (new): 1b. ‘online digital euro’ means an account-based online payment system issued by the European Central Bank that requires a digital euro settlement infrastructure;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1 c (new): 1c. "Pan-European sovereign retail payment solution" means a privately-operated European digital payment solution, which: / (a) is accessible within the Union; / (b) is operated by an undertaking established in the Union which is not under the controlling influence of third parties established outside the Union, and essential infrastructure of which is located within the EEA in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2019/452 of the European Parliament and of the Council1a; / (c) operates recognised Union-wide standards in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council2a or is technically integrated into SEPA-compliant systems as regards credit transfers, instant payment at the point of interaction or established Union-based debit card schemes; / (d) offers payment functionalities for natural persons; / (e) enables payments in all euro area Member States, directly or through interoperability with other European sovereign retail payment solutions; / (f) is subject to the oversight and supervision of the Union-level requirements by the Eurosystem in collaboration, when appropriate, with national competent authorities; / 1a Regulation (EU) 2019/452 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2019 establishing a framework for the screening of foreign direct investments into the Union (OJ L 79I, 21.3.2019, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2019/452/oj) / 2a Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Cou…

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 5: 5. ‘digital euro payment account’ means an account held by one or more online digital euro users with a payment service provider to access online digital euro recorded in the digital euro settlement infrastructure and to initiate or receive online digital euro payment transactions, irrespective of technology and data structure;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 5 a (new): 5a. ‘offline digital euro device’ means the secure element in which the offline digital euro is stored that complies with the software and hardware requirements set up by the European Central Bank to ensure the safety, resilience and integrity of its storage and its transfer through digital euro payment transactions;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 6: 6. ‘European Digital Identity Wallets’ means European Digital Identity Wallets as defined in Article 3 point 42 of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council2a; / 1a Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (OJ L 257, 28.8.2014, p. 73, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2014/910/oj).

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 7 a (new): 7a. 'offline digital euro payment service’ means any of the business activities set out in Annex I;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8: 8. 'online digital euro payment service’ means any of the business activities set out in Annex Ia;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 9: 9. ‘payer’ means anyone who has offline digital euros in an offline digital euro device and transfers them to another offline digital euro device or anyone who has an online digital euro payment account and allows a payment order from that online digital euro payment account;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 11: 11. ‘funding’ means the process whereby a digital euro user acquires digital euros, in exchange for either cash or other funds, meaning a direct liability of the European Central Bank or a national central bank towards that digital euro user;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 15: 15. ‘offline digital euro payment transaction’ means a digital euro payment transaction, made in physical proximity or through a digital communication link between the payer and the payee, between the offline digital euro device of the payer and the offline digital euro device of the payee, where authorisation and settlement take place in the local storage devices of both payer and payee;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 17: 17. ‘conditional digital euro payment transaction’ means an online digital euro payment transaction which is instructed automatically upon fulfilment of pre-defined conditions agreed by the payer and by the payee;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 19: 19. ‘digital euro settlement infrastructure’ means the settlement infrastructure of the online digital euro adopted by the Eurosystem;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 25: 25. ‘comparable digital means of payment’ means digital means of payment, including debit card payment and instant payment at the point of interaction but excluding credit transfer and direct debit that are not initiated at the point of interaction;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 26: 26. ‘switching’ means, upon an online digital euro user’s request, transferring from one payment service provider to another either the information about all or some online digital euro payment services, including recurring payments, executed on an online digital euro payment account, or the digital euro holdings from one online digital euro payment account to the other, or both, with or without closing the former online digital euro payment account, while maintaining the same account identifier;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 27: 27. ‘user identifier’ means a unique identifier created by a payment service provider distributing the online digital euro that unambiguously differentiates, for online digital euro purposes, digital euro users but that is not attributable to an identifiable natural or legal person by the European Central Bank and the national central banks;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 28: 28. ‘user alias’ means a unique pseudonymous identifier used to protect user’s identity when processing online digital euro payments that can only be attributable to an identifiable natural or legal person by the payment service provider distributing the online digital euro or by the digital euro user;

Added:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 29: 29. ‘user authentication’ means a unique piece of information created by the payment service provider distributing the online digital euro that, together with the user identifier, allows a digital euro user to prove ownership of the online digital euro holdings recorded in the digital euro settlement infrastructure;

Added:Article 3 – paragraph 1: 1. The offline digital euro is hereby established as a digital form of the single currency.

Added:Article 3 – paragraph 1 a (new): 1a. The establishment of the online digital euro as a digital form of the single currency shall be subject to the condition set out in paragraphs 1b and 1c.

Added:Article 3 – paragraph 1 b (new): 1b. The European Central Bank shall inform the Commission of the completion of the preparatory work for the issue of the offline digital euro referred to in Article 4(2a) immediatelly after its completion. Taking into account the European Central Bank’s information, the Commission shall assess whether pan-European sovereign retail payment solutions operate and enable payments in all euro area Member States with regard to person-to-person, point-of-sale and e-commerce payments, either directly or through interoperability with other European sovereign retail payment solutions. Within six months of receipt of the European Central Bank’s information pursuant to the first subparagraph, the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and to the Council, setting out the conclusions of its assessment pursuant to the second subparagraph. In the report referred to in the third subparagraph, the Commission shall also assess: (a) the progress of Pan-European sovereign payment solutions with regard to providing greater European sovereignty and resilience in payments, (b) the impact of Pan-European sovereign payment solutions on competition and innovation on the payment markets.

Added:Article 3 – paragraph 1 c (new): 1c. In the event the report referred to in paragraph 1b, third subparagraph concludes a negative assessment for a pan-European sovereign retail payment solutions pursuant to paragraph 1b, second subparagraph, the Commission is empowered to adopt a delegated act to declare that absence. Without prejudice to Article 4(2c), the online digital euro shall be considered to be established on the date of entry into force of that delegated act.

Added:Article 3 – paragraph 1 d (new): 1d. The Commission shall adopt any such delegated act within six months of submitting its report to the European Parliament and the Council pursuant to paragraph 1b, third subparagraph.

Added:Article 4 – paragraph 1: 1. In accordance with the Treaties, the European Central Bank shall have the exclusive right to authorise the issue of the digital euro, and the European Central Bank and the national central banks may issue it.

Added:Article 4 – paragraph 2 a (new): 2a. The European Central Bank shall conduct without delay all the technical and organisational tasks for the issue of the offline digital euro, in particular: / (a) the completion of the rulebook; / (b) the necessary infrastructure development and deployment; / (c) all the organisational arrangements; / (d) governance provisions; and / (e) a successful pilot testing with real end users in a controlled test environment.

Added:Article 4 – paragraph 2 b (new): 2b. The European Central Bank shall conduct all the technical and organisational tasks for the issue of the online digital euro.

Added:Article 4 – paragraph 2 c (new): 2c. After the authorisation of the issue of the digital euro, the European Central Bank shall provide for a roll-out phase of at least 24 months, for both the offline and the online forms, to ensure a secure, resilient and gradual adaptation by the Eurosystem, payment service providers and digital euro users.

Added:Article 5 – paragraph 1: 1. The digital euro shall be governed by the provisions of this Regulation, supplemented by the delegated acts that the Commission is empowered to adopt pursuant to Articles 3, 11, 16, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38.

Added:Article 5 – paragraph 4: 4. In accordance with Article 2(10) of Regulation (EU) 2021/1230, the provisions of that Regulation shall apply to digital euro payment transactions.

Added:Article 5 – paragraph 5: 5. Without prejudice to Article 37 of this Regulation, Directive (EU) 2024/1640 and Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 shall apply to digital euro payment transactions.

Added:Article 6 – paragraph 3: 3. Directive (EU) 2024/1640 shall govern the supervision by competent authorities, the sanctions regime and supervisory arrangements between the competent authorities of the home Member States and of the host Member States, concerning the activities of Payment Services Providers in relation to the digital euro for the purpose of ensuring compliance with Chapter IX of this Regulation.

Added:Article 6 – paragraph 5: 5. Member States shall ensure that adequate measures are in place to raise awareness among the public about the availability and features of the offline digital euro and possibilities of access to the offline digital euro.

Added:Article 6 – paragraph 5 a (new): 5a. Member States shall ensure that adequate measures are in place to raise awareness among the public about the availability and features of the online digital euro and possibilities of access to the online digital euro, upon its establishment in accordance with Article 3.

Added:Article 8 – paragraph 1: deleted

Added:Article 8 – paragraph 2: 2. The digital euro shall have legal tender status for payments of a monetary debt denominated in euro to a payee residing or established in the euro area.

Added:Article 9 – paragraph 1 – point a: (a) where the payee is an enterprise which employs fewer than 50 persons or whose annual turnover or annual balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 10 million, or is a non-profit legal entity as defined in Article 2, point (18), of Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council44;

Added:Article 9 – paragraph 1 – point c: (c) where the payee is a natural person acting as self-employed in a commercial activity or in the course of a purely personal or household activity;

Added:Article 10 – paragraph 1: Payees subject to the obligation to accept the digital euro shall use only contractual terms that have been individually negotiated or commercial practices that have the objective or effect of excluding the use of the digital euro by payers of monetary debts denominated in euro. / Contractual terms or commercial practices as referred to in the first subparagraph shall not be binding on the payer. / Contractual terms shall not be regarded as having been individually negotiated where they have been drafted in advance and where the payer has not been able to influence their substance, particularly in the context of a pre-formulated standard contract.

Added:Article 11 – title: Other adequate exceptions of a monetary law nature

Added:Article 11 – paragraph 1: The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 38 to supplement this Regulation by identifying other adequate exceptions of a monetary law nature to the principle of mandatory acceptance. Those exceptions shall be justified by an objective of public interest and, proportionate to that aim, shall not undermine the effectiveness of the legal tender status of the digital euro, and shall only be permitted provided that other means for the payment of monetary debts are available. When preparing those delegated acts, the Commission shall consult the European Central Bank and, where non-euro area Member States are concerned, the relevant national central bank.

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – introductory part: Within the framework of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, payment service providers may provide the digital euro payment services set out in Annex I to this Regulation for offline digital euro and in Annex Ia to this Regulation for online digital euro to:

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2: The European Central Bank may restrict the access to and use in time of the online digital euro for the digital euro users referred to in points (b) and (c) subject to the conditions laid down in Article 16.

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 a (new): The access to and use of the automatic funding and defunding of the online digital euro shall be restricted in the cases referred to in point (c).

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 2: 2. Payment service providers that provide servicing payment services within the meaning of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 shall enable online digital euro users to manually fund or defund their online digital euro payment accounts, whether held within the same or another payment service provider, from or to non-digital euro payment accounts, or offline digital euro device, or euro banknotes and coins when a payment services provider provides cash services, subject to any limitations laid down in Article 16 of this Regulation.

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 2 a (new): 2a. Payment service providers that provide servicing payment services within the meaning of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 shall enable online digital euro users to automatically fund or defund their online digital euro payment accounts held within the same payment service provider, from or to non-digital euro payment accounts, subject to any limitations laid down in Article 16 of this Regulation.

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 2 b (new): 2b. Payment service providers shall make available manual funding and defunding functionalities to natural persons using the offline digital euro from cash, an online digital euro account, or any non-digital euro payment account designated by the offline digital euro user subject to any limitations laid down in Articles 16 and 37.

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 2 c (new): 2c. Payment service providers shall enable their merchant clients to automatically defund their offline digital euro devices to non-digital euro payment accounts designated by the merchant.

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 3 – point a: (a) at any point in time where funding and defunding take place through non-digital euro payment accounts, through offline digital euro devices or online digital euro payment accounts;

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 4 – subparagraph 1 – introductory part: Payment service providers providing account servicing payment services within the meaning of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 shall enable online digital euro users:

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 4 – subparagraph 1 – point a: (a) to have their online digital euros in excess of any limitations adopted in accordance with Article 16 automatically defunded to a non-digital euro payment account, where an online digital euro payment transaction is received;

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 4 – subparagraph 2: For the purpose of points (a) and (b), and upon prior approval by the digital euro users, payment service providers shall link each online digital euro payment account to a single non-digital euro payment account designated by the digital euro users. Digital euro users shall be allowed to have that designated non-digital euro payment account with a different payment service provider than the one where a given online digital euro payment account is held.

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 7: 7. Natural persons shall not have more than one offline digital euro device.

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 7 a (new): 7a. Digital euro users may have one or more online digital euro payment accounts, with the same or different payment service providers.

Added:Article 13 – paragraph 8: 8. From the date of issuance of the digital euro, payment service providers shall make available to their clients, free of charge, accessible information about the specific features of digital euro payment services and the conditions of their distribution.

Added:Article 14 – paragraph 1: 1. For the purpose of distributing the digital euro to natural persons referred to in Article 13(1)(a), credit institutions that provide payment services as referred to in points (1), (2) or (3) of Annex I to Directive (EU) 2015/2366 shall, upon request of their clients, provide those persons with all basic digital euro payment services as referred to in Annexes II and IIa to this Regulation.

Added:Article 14 – paragraph 2: 2. For natural persons referred to in Article 13(1)(a) that do not hold a non-digital euro account, Chapter IV of Directive (EU) 2014/92 shall apply, with the exception of Articles 17 and 18, to the access to online digital euro account with basic services by consumers.

Added:Article 14 – paragraph 3 – point a: deleted

Added:Article 14 – paragraph 4: 4. Payment service providers referred to in paragraphs 1 to 3 shall provide digital inclusion support to their clients with disabilities, functional limitations or limited digital skills, and elderly persons. Without prejudice to paragraph 3, point (b), digital inclusion support shall comprise a dedicated assistance for onboarding to the digital euro payment services and using all basic digital euro services.

Added:Article 14 – paragraph 5: 5. The anti-money laundering authority of the Union (‘AMLA’) established under Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 of the European Parliament and of the Council1a and the European Banking Authority shall jointly issue guidelines specifying the interaction between AML/CFT requirements and the provision of basic digital euro payment services with a particular focus on financial inclusion of vulnerable groups including asylum seekers or beneficiaries of international protection, individuals with no fixed address or third country nationals who are not granted a residence permit but whose expulsion is impossible for legal or factual reasons. Those guidelines shall reflect the intrinsic distinctive AML/CFT risk profiles of basic online and offline digital euro payment services. / 1a Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2024 establishing the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism and amending Regulations (EU) No 1093/2010, (EU) No 1094/2010 and (EU) No 1095/2010 (OJ L, 2024/1620, 19.6.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1620/oj)

Added:Article 15 – paragraph 1: 1. With a view to enabling natural and legal persons to access and use the digital euro and to contributing to the stability of the financial system, the use of the digital euro as a store of value shall be subject to holding limits that will be the same across all euro area Member States and respect the principle of proportionality.

Added:Article 15 – paragraph 2: 2. With a view to ensuring an effective use of the digital euro as a legal tender means of payment, and to avoiding excessive charges for merchants subject to the obligation to accept the digital euro under Chapter II while providing appropriate and fair compensation for the relevant costs incurred by payment services providers for the mandatory provision of digital euro payment services, the level of charges or fees to be paid by natural persons or merchants to payment service providers, or between payment service providers, shall be subject to limits.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 1: 1. For the purpose of Article 15(1), legal persons shall not maintain any digital euro holdings. In the event of a temporary network disruption due to force majeure events, legal persons may temporarily maintain holdings in their offline digital euro device with no limits. As soon as the network disruption has come to an end, automatic defunding in accordance with Article 13(2c) shall be provided.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 2 – introductory part: 2. For the purpose of Article 15(1), the holdings of digital euro that natural persons may hold shall be limited.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 2 – point a: deleted

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 2 – point b: deleted

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 2 – point c: deleted

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 3 – introductory part: 3. The European Central Bank shall, after consulting the European Systemic Risk Board, prepare a report on the impact of different theoretical holding limits on the financial stability of the euro area and its Member States. The European Central Bank shall submit the report to the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council within six months of having concluded the preparatory work for the issuance of the offline digital euro referred to in Article 4(2a). The report shall be accompanied by the methodology employed for the calculations and shall contain at least the following information:

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 3 – point a (new): (a) an assessment of the impact of different theoretical holding limits on the financial stability and on the competitiveness and resilience of credit institutions and non-financial corporations in the euro area, giving special attention to the impact on funding, liquidity, profitability and lending provision by credit institutions;

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 3 – point b (new): (b) any limitations in the methodology or the data used that shall limit their applicability, and specifically any correction factors needed to extrapolate the results on liquidity metrics when the data used include periods with extraordinary ample market liquidity and excess reserves.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 2 (new): When assessing the impacts referred to in the first subparagraph, point (a), the European Central Bank shall assume, for every theoretical holding limit, a full take-up of the theoretical holding limits in a normalised overall market liquidity situation as compared with a situation in which the digital euro is not issued. The impacts shall be evaluated at the aggregate level of the Union and national financial systems as well as at the level of individual credit institutions in order to assess residual financial instability risks stemming from euro area-wide, country-specific or institution-specific risks. Information on the most affected institutions, the Member States they operate in and their business model shall be provided at the highest level of granularity compatible with keeping confidentiality of supervisory data.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 4: 4. No later than three months after the reception of the report of the European Central Bank referred to in paragraph 3 and prior to the adoption of the delegated act referred to in paragraph 5, the Commission shall prepare a report with a detailed explanation of the risk tolerance to residual financial stability risk. The report shall, in particular, establish the percentage of total banking assets at euro area and at Member State level that may be subject to stressed financial conditions for potential theoretical holding limits in the scenario of full take up by digital euro users.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 4 – subparagraph 2 (new): The Commission shall present the report to the European Parliament and to the Council no later than three months before the adoption of the delegated act referred to paragraph 5.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 5 – introductory part: 5. The Commission is empowered to adopt a delegated act to set up the initial holding limits. The delegated act shall be adopted no later than six months after receipt of the report of the European Central Bank referred to in paragraph 3. The initial holding limits shall comply with the following criteria in the scenario of full take up by digital euro users in normalised overall market liquidity situation:

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1 – point a (new): (a) no individual credit institution in the euro area is expected to confront a retail sight deposits outflow greater than 5% compared to the situation without a digital euro;

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1 – point b (new): (b) the total assets represented by credit institutions which will reach or fall below a liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) of a 100% will be below 1% for the euro area as a whole and for each individual Member State in the euro area.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1 a (new): If the holding limits were to be lower than the estimated average cash holdings of natural persons as a means of transactions, the Commission may decide to set initial holding limits equivalent to those average cash holdings.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 5 a (new): 5a. The Commission is empowered to adopt a delegated act revising the initial holding limits downwards, after consulting the European Central Bank and the European Systemic Risk Board, whenever it deems this to be appropriate.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 5 b (new): 5b. The Commission shall propose a legislative amendment where it considers it appropriate to modify the criteria referred to in paragraph 5 to revise the initial holding limits upwards.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 6: 6. The holding limits referred to in paragraph 5 shall be applied in a non-discriminatory manner and uniformly across the euro area.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2 (new): Payment service providers providing account servicing payment services within the meaning of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 to natural and legal persons referred to in Article 13(1) shall ensure those overall holding limits to online digital euro payment accounts and offline digital euro devices.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 7: 7. Where a digital euro user uses both an offline and online digital euro, the holding limit that applies to online digital euro shall be equal to the overall holding limit determined in paragraph 5 minus the holding limit for offline digital euro set by digital euro users. A digital euro user may set its offline holding limit at any amount between zero and the holding limit set in accordance with Article 37.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 7 a (new): 7a. Visitors and natural and legal persons referred to in Article 13(1), points (b), (d) and (e), shall be subject to holding limits as regards the use of the digital euro as a store of value that are not higher than those effectively implemented in the euro area for natural and legal persons residing or established in Member States whose currency is the euro. Those holding limits shall be applied in a non-discriminatory manner and uniformly across Member States whose currency is not the euro. When deciding on the holding limits and other limits, the Commission shall consult the European Central Bank and national central banks of Member States whose currency is not the euro.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 7 b (new): 7b. Where an online digital euro user has multiple online digital euro payment accounts, the digital euro user shall specify to the payment service providers with which the digital euro payment accounts are held how the individual holding limit is to be allocated between the different digital euro payment accounts.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 7 c (new): 7c. Where an online digital euro payment account is held by more than one digital euro user, any holding limit on the related digital euro payment account adopted pursuant to paragraph 5 shall amount to the sum of the individual holding limits allocated to its users.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 7 d (new): 7d. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts, at the request of the European Central Bank, proposing additional limits to the use of the digital euro for the purpose of safeguarding financial stability and the stable funding of credit institutions and their lending capacity to the economy, while ensuring the usability and acceptance of the digital euro as a legal tender instrument and respecting the principle of proportionality.

Added:Article 16 – paragraph 8: 8. The digital euro shall not bear interest.

Added:Article 17 – title: Fees and charges for the provision of digital euro payment services

Added:Article 17 – paragraph 1: 1. For the purpose of Article 15(2), without prejudice to any possible fees charged on other digital euro payment services, payment services providers shall not charge fees to natural persons as referred to in Article 13(1), points (a), (b) and (c), for the provision of the basic digital euro payment services referred to in Annexes II and IIa.

Added:Article 17 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 (new): To prevent the use of natural persons’ digital euro payment accounts for business purposes from being covered under the basic digital euro payment services in Annexes II and IIa, payment services providers shall be allowed to establish a proportionate limit on the number of received and issued payment transactions that are free-of-charge, and they shall be allowed to charge the exceeding ones according to paragraph 2 of this Article.

Added:Article 17 – paragraph 2 – introductory part: 2. For the purpose of Article 15(2), any merchant service charge or inter-payment service provider fee in relation to online digital euro payment transactions shall comply with the principle of proportionality. Any inter-payment service provider fee or merchant service charge levied by a payment service provider on a payment service provider or merchant in respect to online digital euro payment services shall not be higher than the inter-payment service provider fee or merchant service charge levied by that payment service provider on that specific payment service provider or merchant for comparable means of payment.

Removed:Article 22 – paragraph 5: 5. Payment service providers shall allow the use of Digital Euro wallet by more than one Digital Euro users.

Added:Article 17 – paragraph 4: 4. The Commission may require payment service providers to provide all information necessary for the application of this Article and to verify compliance with it. Any information requested shall be sent by payment service providers within the time limit set by the Commission. The Commission may require that such information is certified by an independent auditor

Removed:Article 24 – paragraph 1 – introductory part: 1. To ensure that payment service providers, other service providers and Digital Euro users can use conditional Digital Euro payment transactions, the European Central Bank may:

Added:Article 17 – paragraph 5: deleted / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted)

Removed:Article 24 – paragraph 1 – point b: (b) provide the functionalities in the Digital Euro transfer infrastructure necessary for the execution of conditional Digital Euro payment transactions, including for the reservation of funds;

Added:Article 17 – paragraph 6: 6. The merchant service charge shall incorporate all the fees and charges charged to the merchant in relation with the provision of acquiring services and, regardless of their price structure, be expressed as a percentage of the total monetary amount transacted in a given period of time. Payment service providers shall not charge merchants for the automatic defunding of the digital euro, including digital euro payment transactions referred to in Article 13(4) when the defunding goes to a non-digital euro payment account held with the same payment service provider. Payment service providers shall not charge merchants for the front-end services included in Annexes II and IIa.

Removed:Article 24 – paragraph 1 – point b a (new): (ba) adopt standards in order to allow the Digital Euro to be referenced on distributed ledgers.

Added:Article 17 – paragraph 7: 7. No inter-payment service providers fee shall apply to offline digital euro transactions or to the funding and defunding of online digital euro accounts from or to a non-digital euro payment account held with the same payment service provider.

Removed:Article 26 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1: The European Central Bank shall ensure the interoperability of the design features and rules of Digital Euro and the standards governing the interface of the Digital Euro infrastructure with relevant standards governing private digital means of payment. The European Central Bank shall prioritise to enable private digital means of payment to distribute the Digital Euro on the basis of the design features and rules, governing the Digital Euro.

Added:Article 17 a (new): Article 17a / Review clause on the fees and charges for the provision of digital euro payment services / 1. By 10 years from the issuance of the digital euro, provided that sufficient and reliable cost data for digital euro transactions are available in an accurate, harmonised and verifiable manner, and that the average unit costs and volume of total digital euro transactions have stabilised after the consumers’ adoption period, the Commission, after consulting the European Central Bank, shall carry out a review and submit a report to the European Parliament and to the Council to evaluate whether the compensation model referred to in Article 17 should be replaced with a cost-based compensation model. / 2. If a cost-based compensation model is deemed to provide lower costs for merchants, greater efficiency and competition in the payment markets and avoids cross-subsidies among different merchants’ business models or within the European payments ecosystem, the Commission shall prepare a legislative proposal for a new model of fees and charges for the provision of digital euro payment services. / 3. The report referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall include a comparison between the fees and charges that could result a cost-based compensation model, including a reasonable margin of profit, and the data collected pursuant to Article 17(3). / 4. The reasonable margin of profit referred to in paragraph 3 shall be calculated on the basis of the profit margin applied by those…

Removed:Article 26 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2: For the purpose of the first subparagraph, interoperability shall be pursued by the use of existing established standards and a contribution to their further development.

Added:Article 18 – paragraph 4: 4. Payment service providers shall implement the limits set by the Commission in accordance with Article 16 on the use of the digital euro by natural and legal persons residing or established in Member States whose currency is not the euro, which are applicable in those Member States.

Removed:Article 26 a (new): Article 26a / Governance and interoperability / The eligible payment service providers shall, on the basis of the design features and rules defined by the European Central Bank for the Digital Euro and the standards defined by the European Central Bank for the interface to the Digital Euro infrastructure, develop a Digital Euro payment scheme that governs the rules, standards and processes in the payment service provider infrastructure and for the front-end provided to the Digital Euro user. / For the purpose of the first subparagraph, each eligible payment service provider shall offer to the Digital Euro users at least one Digital Euro front-end service that is interoperable with front-end services across the euro area.

Added:Article 19 – paragraph 3: 3. The agreement between the Union and the third country shall specify the necessary implementing measures and procedures, and the cases under which the agreement may be restricted, suspended, or terminated, in particular where the third country has been identified as a third country with significant strategic deficiencies in its national anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism regime as referred to in Article 29 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 or as a third country with compliance weaknesses in its national anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism regime as referred to in Article 30 of that Regulation. That agreement shall be complemented by an arrangement between the European Central Bank and the national central bank and, where appropriate, the national competent authority of the third country.

Removed:Article 27 – paragraph 3: deleted

Added:Article 19 – paragraph 5: 5. Intermediaries established or operating in the third country shall implement the limits set by the Commission in accordance with Article 16 on the use of the digital euro by natural and legal persons residing or established in the third country, which are applicable in that country.

Removed:Article 28 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – introductory part: Payment service providers distributing the Digital Euro shall have the option of using the following digital front-end services to allow Digital Euro users to access and use Digital Euro payment services:

Added:Article 22 – paragraph 3: 3. Each online digital euro payment account shall have a unique digital euro payment account number. Each offline digital euro device shall have a unique identifier.

Removed:Article 28 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point a: (a) front-end services developed by payment service providers; or

Added:Article 22 – paragraph 4: 4. Each online digital euro payment account or offline digital euro device may be linked to one or more non-digital euro payment accounts that shall be designated by the digital euro user. For the purpose of Article 13(2a) and (4), each online digital euro payment account may only be linked to one non-digital payment account.

Removed:Article 28 – paragraph 2 a (new): 2a. The [Governance Body of the digital Euro Rulebook OR European Central bank] shall, in accordance with Article 26, define a minimum set of technical standards required for the interoperability between front-end services for the purpose of point (b) of Annex I. These standards shall be applied: / (a) by payment service providers when developing own front-end services and; / (b) by the European Central Bank pursuant to paragraph 1, point (b).

Added:Article 22 – paragraph 5: 5. Payment service providers shall allow the use of online digital euro payment account by more than one digital euro users.

Removed:Article 28 – paragraph 3 – point b: (b) Digital Euro wallets can be quickly and easily accessed to and used by Digital Euro users.

Added:Article 23 – paragraph 1: 1. The offline digital euro shall be available for offline digital euro payment transactions as of the first issuance of the digital euro. The online digital euro availability shall be subject to conditions set out in the Article 3.

Removed:Article 29 – paragraph 2: 2. During the execution of a Digital Euro payment transaction, the payer’s payment service provider and the payee’s payment service provider involved in the execution of that transaction shall not verify whether the payer or the payee whose Digital Euro wallet are used for the execution of that Digital Euro payment transaction are listed persons or entities in addition to carrying out verifications under paragraph 1.

Added:Article 23 – paragraph 2: 2. The digital euro, held online or offline, shall be convertible at par between each other and with respect to electronic money and scriptural money, at the request of the digital euro users.

Removed:Article 35 – paragraph 1 – point a: (a) provision of access for payment service providers to the Digital Euro transfer infrastructure and support the exchange of messages between payment service providers;

Added:Article 26 – title: Existing infrastructures and interoperability

Removed:Article 35 – paragraph 1 – point c: (c) safeguarding the security and integrity of the Digital Euro transfer infrastructure and of local storage devices;

Added:Article 26 – paragraph 1: 1. The European Central Bank shall seek to use to the extent possible and where appropriate the existing infrastructures, protocols and standards governing private digital means of payment and especially those underpinning instant payments.

Removed:Article 35 – paragraph 1 – point d: deleted

Added:Article 26 – paragraph 1 a (new): 1.a The European Central Bank shall seek to ensure to the extent possible the interoperability of standards governing digital euro payment services with relevant standards governing private digital means of payment and especially those underpinning instant payments. The European Central Bank shall seek to enable, to the extent possible and where appropriate, private digital means of payment to use rules, standards and processes governing the digital euro payment services.

Removed:Article 35 – paragraph 1 – point e: (e) in exceptional circumstances as defined in Article 31 (2), authorising payment service providers in switching Digital Euro wallets held with a payment services provider to another payment service providers designated by the Digital Euro user.

Added:Article 26 – paragraph 2: For the purpose of the paragraph 1a, interoperability may be supported inter alia by the use of open standards.

Removed:Article 35 – paragraph 4: 4. Personal data processed for tasks referred to in paragraph 1 shall be supported by appropriate technical and organisational measures including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures. This shall include the clear segregation of personal data to ensure that the European Central Bank and the national central banks cannot directly and indirectly identify individual Digital Euro users.

Added:Article 27 – paragraph 1: 1. Without prejudice to the disputes concerning the lawfulness of the processing of personal data, disputes regarding online digital euro payment transactions as well as funding and defunding operations for the offline digital euro transactions shall be governed by the rules provided for in Directive (EU) 2015/2366. Directive (EU) 2020/1828 of the European Parliament and of the Council1a shall apply to the representative actions brought against infringements of provisions of this Regulation that harm or may harm the collective interests of consumers. / 1a Directive (EU) 2020/1828 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2020 on representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers and repealing Directive 2009/22/EC (OJ L 409, 4.12.2020, p.1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2020/1828/oj ).

Removed:Article 38 – paragraph 2: 2. The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Articles 11, 33, 34 and 35 shall be conferred on the Commission for an period of five years from [date of entry into force of this Regulation].

Added:Article 27 – paragraph 3: 3. The European Central Bank shall act as the dispute-settlement body for disputes among payment service providers relating to the application of the Rulebook governing the operation of the digital euro. The role and functions of the European Central Bank in this capacity shall be established by contract between the European Central Bank and all payment service providers distributing the digital euro. To perform those functions, the European Central Bank shall adopt internal rules and a governance framework for dispute settlement that ensures no interference and full independence from the European Central Bank payment-system oversight functions. Decisions issued by the European Central Bank under this mechanism shall be final and binding on all participating payment service providers and directly enforceable vis-à-vis their users through the payment service providers’ contractual obligations without prejudice to the right to seek redress before judicial authorities in accordance with Union and national law.

Removed:Article 38 – paragraph 3: deleted

Added:Article 28 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – introductory part: Payment service providers distributing the digital euro may provide digital euro users with the front-end services developed by the European Central Bank to allow digital euro users to access and use digital euro payment services in accordance with Annexes II and IIa.

Removed:Article 38 – paragraph 6: 6. A delegated act adopted pursuant to Articles 11, 33, 34 and 35 shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or the Council within a period of three months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. . That period shall be extended by three months at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council.

Added:Article 28 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point a: deleted

Removed:Article 38 a (new): Article 38a / Scrutiny procedure / The European Parliament, the Council, the Commission and the European Central Bank shall, after the European Central Bank has presented the technological structure of the Digital Euro, conduct a scrutiny procedure to assess the technology and ensure its suitability to serve Digital Euro users´ best interest. For this purpose, the European Central Bank shall advise the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission with due notice when the technological development has been concluded. The scrutiny procedure shall be conducted in a timely manner to allow for an orderly release of the Digital Euro by the European Central Bank, provided the scrutiny findings of the European Institutions are positive.

Added:Article 28 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point b: deleted

Added:Article 28 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 a (new): Payment service providers distributing the digital euro may offer their own front-end services or front-end services offered by other payment service providers.

Added:Article 28 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2: deleted

Added:Article 28 – paragraph 2: 2. Front-end services provided by the European Central bank referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, shall not provide for customer relationships, that shall solely be provided by payment service providers in their role in the digital euro distribution as laid down in Article 13 and under Directive (EU) 2015/2366. The European Central Bank shall not have access to any personal data in relation to the front-end services developed by the European Central Bank and used by the payment services providers.

Added:Article 28 – paragraph 3 – point a: (a) digital euro payment services use the official digital euro logo and comply with the technical and security standards set up or certified by the European Central Bank;

Added:Article 28 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3a. The European Central Bank shall develop the technical, operational and security standards, including the certification process where applicable, to the offline digital euro devices and the digital euro payment accounts to ensure the resilient, safe and smooth execution of payments.

Added:Article 28 – paragraph 3 b (new): 3b. For the purpose of Chapter VI, payment services providers outside the euro area shall distribute only offline digital euro devices certified by the European Central Bank pursuant to paragraph 3a or by the corresponding national central bank if that is provided for in the arrangements referred to in Articles 18(1) and 19(1).

Added:Article 29 – paragraph 1: 1. Payment service providers executing online digital euro payment transactions shall verify whether any of their digital euro users are listed persons or entities. Payment service providers shall carry out such verifications immediately after the entry into force of any new or amended restrictive measures adopted in accordance with Article 215 TFEU providing for asset freeze or prohibition of making funds or economic resources available, and at least once every calendar day.

Added:Article 29 – paragraph 2: 2. During the execution of an online digital euro payment transaction, the payer’s payment service provider and the payee’s payment service provider involved in the execution of that transaction shall not verify whether the payer or the payee whose digital euro payment accounts are used for the execution of that digital euro payment transaction are listed persons or entities in addition to carrying out verifications under paragraph 1.

Added:Article 29 – paragraph 3: 3. A payment service provider that has failed to carry out the verifications referred to in paragraph 1 and executes an online digital euro payment transaction causing another payment service provider involved in the execution of that digital euro payment transaction to fail to freeze assets of listed persons or entities, or to make funds or economic resources available to such persons or entities, shall compensate the financial damage caused to the other payment service provider resulting from penalties imposed on that other payment service provider under restrictive measures adopted in accordance with Article 215 TFEU providing for asset freeze or prohibition of making funds or economic resources available.

Added:Article 29 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3a. Payment service providers providing offline digital euro devices shall verify whether any of the persons requesting an offline digital euro device are listed persons or entities. Payment service providers shall carry out such verifications immediately after the entry into force of any new or amended restrictive measures adopted in accordance with Article 215 TFEU providing for asset freeze or prohibition of making funds or economic resources available, and at least once every calendar day.

Added:Article 30 – paragraph 3: 3. Final settlement of offline digital euro payment transactions shall occur at the moment when the funds in the payer’s offline digital euro device are directly transferred to the payee’s offline digital euro device without any intermediation of any payment service provider or digital euro settlement infrastructure.

Added:Article 31 – paragraph 1: 1. Payment service providers shall enable online digital euro users at their request to switch their digital euro payment accounts to other payment service providers while maintaining the same account number.

Added:Article 31 – paragraph 2: 2. In exceptional circumstances where a payment service provider is operationally not in a position to provide online digital euro payment services to digital euro users for a prolonged period of time, or has lost the online digital euro payment account-related data concerned, the European Central Bank and national central banks may authorise the switching of digital euro payment accounts held with that payment service provider to another payment service provider designated by the digital euro user. That switching shall enable the new payment service provider to complete the switching without relying on the unavailable payment service provider.

Added:Article 32 – paragraph 1: 1. The European Central Bank shall facilitate the fraud detection and prevention tasks that payment service providers shall perform under Directive (EU) 2015/2366 by establishing a general fraud detection and prevention mechanism for online digital euro transactions to ensure the smooth and efficient functioning of the digital euro. That general fraud detection and prevention mechanism may be operated directly by the European Central Bank or by the providers of support services designated by the European Central Bank.

Added:Article 32 – paragraph 4: 4. For the purpose of this Article, payment service providers shall provide the fraud detection and prevention mechanism with information referred to in Annex V payment service providers shall implement appropriate technical and organisational measures including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures to ensure that the European Central Bank or the providers of support services shall not be able to directly or indirectly identify the digital euro users on the basis of the information provided to the fraud detection and prevention mechanism.

Added:Article 32 – paragraph 4 a (new): 4a. The European Central Bank shall put in place state-of-the-art technical safety measures to ensure that for the digital euro the incidence of fraud is not higher than that observed for comparable digital means of payment and, specifically for the offline digital euro, the incidence of double spending or counterfeiting is not higher than for cash.

Added:Article 33 – paragraph 1: 1. Without prejudice to Article 6 paragraph (7) of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925, original equipment manufacturers of mobile devices and providers of electronic communication services within the meaning of Article 2(1) Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council47 shall allow providers of front end services and providers of European Digital Identity Wallets effective interoperability with, and access for the purposes of interoperability to, the hardware features and software features necessary for storing and transferring data to process online or offline digital euro transactions, on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. / 47 Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018, establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (OJ L 17.12.2018, p. 36).

Added:Article 34 – title: Processing personal data by payment service providers

Added:Article 34 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point a: (a) the enforcement of limits, including the verification of whether prospective or existing digital euro users have an offline digital euro device or digital euro accounts with another payment service providers, as referred to in Article 16;

Added:Article 34 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point b: (b) funding and defunding as referred to in Article 13 (2) to (3), and digital euro payment transactions as referred to in Article 13(4);

Added:Article 34 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point c: (c) the provision of offline digital euro as referred to in point (c) of Annex I;

Added:Article 34 – paragraph 2: 2. For the purposes referred to in paragraph 1 (a) to (c), of this Article, Annex V lays down the types of personal data.

Added:Article 34 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1: The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 38 to update the types of personal data listed in Annex V.

Added:Article 34 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 2: Payment service providers shall be considered to be the controllers of personal data as regards the purposes referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article. Where an online digital euro payment account held by one payment service provider is linked with a non-digital euro payment account held by another payment service provider in accordance with Article 13(4), these payment service providers shall be joint controllers.

Added:Article 34 – paragraph 4: 4. Payment service providers shall implement appropriate technical and organisational measures including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures to ensure that any data communicated to the European Central Bank and the national central banks or to providers of support services do not directly or indirectly identify individual digital euro users or link them to specific transactions.

Added:Article 35 – paragraph 1 – point a: (a) provision of access for payment service providers to the online digital euro settlement infrastructure and support the exchange of messages between payment service providers;

Added:Article 35 – paragraph 1 – point a a (new): (aa) provision of access for online digital euro users to the European Central Bank front-end services;

Added:Article 35 – paragraph 1 – point c: (c) safeguarding the security, resilience and integrity of the digital euro settlement infrastructure of the online digital euro accounts and of local storage devices for the offline digital euro devices;

Added:Article 35 – paragraph 1 – point d: (d) supporting verification by payment service providers of whether a prospective user already has online digital euro payment accounts with other payment service providers in order to prevent the circumvention of limits in accordance with Article 16;

Added:Article 35 – paragraph 1 – point e: (e) in exceptional circumstances as defined in Article 31(2), authorising payment service providers in switching online digital euro payment accounts held with a payment services provider to another payment service providers designated by the online digital euro user.

Added:Article 35 – paragraph 2: 2. For the purposes referred to in paragraph 1, Annex VI lays down the types of personal data.

Added:Article 35 – paragraph 3: 3. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 38 to update the types of personal data listed in Annex VI.

Added:Article 35 – paragraph 4: 4. Personal data processed for tasks referred to in paragraph 1 shall be supported by appropriate technical and organisational measures including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures. This shall include the clear segregation of personal data to ensure that the European Central Bank and the national central banks cannot directly or indirectly identify individual digital euro users or link them to specific transactions.

Added:Article 35 – paragraph 5: 5. The European Central Bank shall be considered the controller of personal data as regards to the purposes referred to in paragraphs 1 and 8 of this Article. When the European Central Bank carries out a task referred to in paragraphs 1 and 8 jointly with the national central banks, they shall be joint controllers for that task.

Added:Article 35 – paragraph 7: 7. Where the European Central Bank decides not to confer tasks referred to in Articles 27 and 32 upon providers of support services, the European Central Bank may process the types of personal data referred to in Annex VII subject to the requirements referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article.

Added:Article 35 – paragraph 8: 8. For purpose of supporting the task of payment service providers to enforce the limits in accordance to Article 16 and ensuring the emergency switching upon the request of the user in accordance with Article 31(2), the ECB may jointly with national central banks establish a single access point of digital euro user identifiers and the related digital euro holding limits as referred to in point (4) of Annex VI. The European Central Bank shall implement appropriate technical and organisational measures including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures to ensure that the identity of individual digital euro users cannot be inferred from the information accessed via the single access point by entities other than payment service providers whose customer or potential customer is the digital euro user.

Added:Article 36 – title: Processing personal data by providers of support services

Added:Article 36 – paragraph 1 – introductory part: 1. Where the European Central Bank decides to confer tasks referred to in Article 27 and 32 upon providers of support services, providers of support services shall provide payment-related services across payment service providers. In such a situation, payment service providers perform a task in the public interest, where they process personal data for the following purposes:

Added:Article 36 – paragraph 2: 2. For the purposes referred to in paragraph 1, Annex VII lays down the types of personal data.

Added:Article 36 – paragraph 3: 3. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 38 to update the types of personal data listed in Annex VII.

Added:Article 36 – paragraph 4: 4. The processing of personal data for the purposes referred to in paragraph 1 shall only take place when appropriate technical and organisational measures including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures are implemented to ensure that the providers of support services cannot directly or indirectly identify individual digital euro users or link them to specific transactions.

Added:Article 36 – paragraph 5: 5. The providers of support services shall be considered to be the controllers of personal data as regards the purposes referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article. This paragraph is without prejudice to the European Central Bank and the national central banks appointing the operators of any payment-related services across payment service providers and auditing of the service performance level without processing any personal data.

Added:Article 37 – paragraph 2: 2. Transaction data shall not be obtained or retained by payment service providers or by the European Central Bank and the national central banks.

Added:Article 37 – paragraph 3: 3. Payment service providers shall obtain and retain data of funding and defunding for storing digital euros on payment instruments in accordance with Article 40 of Directive (EU) 2015/849 and national provisions transposing that Article. Payment service providers shall, upon request, make those data available to the Financial Intelligence Unit and other competent authorities as referred in Article 2(44) of Regulation 2024/1624.

Added:Article 37 – paragraph 4 – point b: (b) the identifier of the offline digital euro device;

Added:Article 37 – paragraph 4 – point d: (d) the digital euro payment accounts or non digital euro payment accounts numbers used for funding and defunding.

Added:Article 37 – paragraph 5: 5. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts setting additional offline digital euro payment transaction limits and holding limits due to AML/CFT considerations in addition to those referred to in Article 16 derived from financial stability considerations. / The applicable holding limit shall be the lower of: (i) the limit established pursuant Article 16, or (ii) any AML/CFT-related limit adopted by the Commission in accordance with the first subparagraph

Added:Article 37 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 1 – introductory part: Transaction and holding limits shall take into account the need to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing while not unduly restricting the use of the offline digital euro as a means of payment. The Commission, when drawing up the delegated acts referred to in paragraph 5, shall take into account in particular the following:

Added:Article 37 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 1 – point a: (a) an assessment of the money laundering and terrorist financing threats, vulnerabilities and risks of the offline digital euro when funding and defunding their payment instrument and its risk profile when used in physical proximity or through a digital communication link between the payer and the payee;

Added:Article 37 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 1 – point c: (c) the objective of ensuring the usability and acceptance of the offline digital euro as a legal tender instrument.

Added:Article 38 – title: Exercise of the delegation

Added:Article 38 – paragraph 2: 2. The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Articles 3, 11, 16, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38 shall be conferred on the Commission for a period of five years from the date of entry into force of this Regulation. The Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end of the five-year period. The delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension not later than three months before the end of each period.

Added:Article 38 – paragraph 3: 3. The power to adopt the delegated acts referred to in Articles 3, 11, 16, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38 may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force.

Added:Article 38 – paragraph 6: 6. A delegated act adopted pursuant to Articles 3, 11, 16, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38 shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or the Council within a period of three months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by three months at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council.

Added:Article 39: deleted / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted)

Added:Article 40 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 – introductory part: For that purpose, the European Central Bank shall report on the digital euro development and its effective use. The report shall cover the contribution of the European Central Bank in the implementation of the provisions of this Regulation, including on the following elements:

Added:Article 40 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 – point -a (new): (-a) the progress made in the Union payments landscape towards the creation of a pan-European sovereign retail payment instrument as referred to Article 3;

Added:Article 40 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 – point d a (new): (da) data on fraud, counterfeiting and double spending and its comparison with comparable means of payment or cash, where appropriate;

Added:Article 40 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 – point d b (new): (db) the level of disputes among payment service providers relating to the application of its Rulebook settled by the European Central Bank and a summary of the improvement of the Rulebook to improve the functioning of the digital euro.

Removed:Annex II – paragraph 1 – point a: (a) registering, managing and closing of a Digital Euro wallet;

Added:Article 41 – paragraph 3: 3. By three years from the first issuance of the digital euro, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and to the Council a report on whether there is a sufficient and effective access to and acceptance of the digital euro in the euro area.

Removed:Annex II – paragraph 1 – point b: (b) actual amount and transaction history covering a period of one year;

Added:Article 41 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3a. By three years from the first issuance of the digital euro, the Commission shall submit a report on the effective use of the digital euro to the European Parliament and to the Council .

Removed:Annex II – paragraph 1 – point c: (c) non-automated funding and defunding from a payment account denominated in euro;

Added:Annex I: Offline digital euro payment services / Offline digital euro payment services consist of: / (a) enabling offline digital euro users to access and use the digital euro, without prejudice to possible limitations set by the Commission in accordance with Articles 16 and 37; / (b) enabling digital euro users to initiate and receive offline digital euro payment transactions; / (c) providing, maintaining and life-cycle management of offline digital euro devices including secure distribution and updates to the software controlling the secure element;

Removed:Annex III – point 1 – point iii: (iii) information on Digital Euro wallets; including information on Digital Euro holdings of the Digital Euro user and the unique Digital Euro wallet identification number; and

Added:Annex I a (new): ANNEX Ia / Online digital euro payment services / Online digital euro payment services consist of: / (a) enabling online digital euro users to access and use the digital euro, without prejudice to possible limitations set by the Commission in accordance with Article 16; / (b) enabling online digital euro users to initiate and receive digital euro payment transactions and providing digital euro users with digital euro payment instruments; / (c) managing digital euro users’ online digital euro payment accounts; / (d) conducting funding and defunding operations in accordance with Article 13; and / (e) providing additional online digital euro payment services on top of basic digital euro payment services pursuant to Annex IIa.

Removed:Annex III – point 1 – point iv: (iv) information on online Digital Euro payment transactions, including the transaction identification number and the transaction amount.

Added:Annex II: Basic offline digital euro payment services / Basic offline digital euro payment services for natural persons shall consist of: / (deleted) / (aa) providing front-end services through an ECB interface; / (ab) regularly updating the ECB’s software for offline digital euro devices; / (b) consulting balances; / (c) manual funding and defunding from a non-digital euro account; / (ca) automatic defunding to a non-digital euro account for merchants; / (cb) funding and defunding from/into an online digital euro account; / (e) initiation and reception of offline digital euro payment transactions: / – person-to-person people offline digital euro payment transactions; / – point-of-interaction offline digital euro payment transactions, including point-of-sale and e-commerce; / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted) / (ga) providing, maintaining and life-cycle managing offline digital euro devices including provisioning, secure distribution, updates to the software controlling the secure element in compliance with the technical and security standards set or certified by the European Central Bank.

Removed:Annex III – point 1 – point iv: (iv) information on online Digital Euro payment transactions, including the transaction identification number and the transaction amount.

Added:Annex II a (new): ANNEX IIa / Basic online digital euro payment services / Basic online digital euro payment services for natural persons shall consist of: / (a) opening, holding and closing of a digital euro payment account; / (b) providing front-end services through an ECB interface; / (c) regularly updating the ECB’s software for digital euro users; / (d) consulting balances and transactions; / (e) automatic funding and defunding online digital euro payment accounts held within the same payment services provider from a non-digital euro payment account; / (f) non-automated funding and defunding from a non-digital euro payment account; / (g) funding and defunding from/into an offline digital euro account; / (h) funding and defunding from/into cash; / (i) initiation and reception of online digital euro payment transactions by means of an electronic payment instrument, to the exclusion of conditional digital euro payment transactions other than standing orders, in the following use cases: / – person-to-person people digital euro payment transactions; / – point-of-interaction digital euro payment transactions, including point-of-sale and e-commerce; / (j) digital euro payment transactions referred to in Article 13(4); and; / (k) provision of at least one electronic payment instrument for the execution of digital euro payment transactions such as referred to in point (e).

Added:To guarantee continued access to central bank money in the digital era, a digital version of the single currency should be introduced, while reinforcing the right of EU citizens to use cash. Europe must also address its overreliance on non-European payment providers. A genuine European response in payments is needed to strengthen strategic autonomy amidst geopolitical instability.

Added:Under the Rapporteur’s vision, defining that response is the purpose of this proposal. He clearly distinguishes between two digital forms of the single currency accessible to citizens and businesses.

Added:On the one hand, the offline digital euro is understood as a tokenised version of cash, not account-based, but operating through “device-to-device” payments. It guarantees privacy, resilience, and universal accessibility even in times of network failure or crisis. Stored and transferred locally on secure devices, it preserves the right of citizens to hold central-bank money in all circumstances. In short: digital cash.

Added:On the other hand, the online digital euro is conceived as an account-based system that requires a digital euro settlement infrastructure operated through the ECB. By its very nature, the online form of the digital euro entails risks of bank disintermediation, loss of deposits, direct competition with private payment solutions and, ultimately, a negative impact on the financing capacity of European businesses and households.

Added:Today, Europe’s payment ecosystem works: citizens can pay conveniently, and the system is stable. The issue is not one of functionality, but of scale, reach, and dependency. For over twenty years, Europeans have shared a currency but not an indigenous pan-European payment system. Many transactions still depend on non-European providers, exposing Europe to technological and geopolitical risks. The Commission’s 2023 proposals sought to address this via a digital euro, but since then, private initiatives have advanced and Europe’s priorities have evolved.

Added:The Rapporteur’s amendments offer a nuanced, realistic and updated response. They propose establishing an offline digital euro while making the online version conditional on the absence of a pan-European sovereign retail payment solution, to be verified by the Commission through a market test once the ECB concludes its offline digital euro preparatory work.

Added:The Rapporteur stresses his agnostic stance toward the outcome of this test, from which he expects an objective assessment of the private sector’s capacity to operate at euro-area scale in person-to-person, point-of-sale and e-commerce payments. It is in the Rapporteur’s interest to clarify that this assessment by the Commission shall in no case delay the ECB’s preparatory work or the overall process.

Added:This approach provides a holistic, proportionate and evidence-based response, balancing financial stability with competitiveness in the payments system. Under this framework, the offline digital euro would represent a proportionate European response, free from financial stability risks, and ensuring European payment sovereignty — without prejudging the possibility that the private sector could solve the scale and dependency gaps of the European payments ecosystem through interoperability.

Added:In conclusion, the Rapporteur’s amendments to the establishment of the digital euro are formulated to ensure that the offline digital euro is introduced to address the challenge of the digitalisation of the economy, while the online digital euro is made conditional upon the absence of a pan-European private sovereign retail payment solution. This conditionality ensures that the digital euro acts as a safety net against market fragmentation, not as a parallel payments ecosystem hindering private solutions from reaching pan-European scale or discouraging continuous innovation.

Added:Nothing in this position questions the importance of developing the wholesale digital euro, which the Rapporteur strongly supports as the most effective means to modernise interbank settlement, enhance cross-border efficiency and strengthen monetary-policy transmission across the euro area.

Added:Separately, the Rapporteur treats this package as one coherent vision for the future of money in Europe, built upon three reinforcing pillars:

Added: safeguarding the universality and access to cash,

Added: introducing a digital form of central-bank money following a speedy but cautious approach which will also serve as a means of payment, and

Added: allowing its cross-border provision in a way that respects non euro area Member States and third countries’ competences, and sovereignty and preserves the integrity of the single market.

Added:The Single Currency package sets out a vision of a Europe adapted to the digital era, and committed to its strategic autonomy through openness: Europe leading by building capacity, sovereignty and resilience not by closing markets.

Added:The rapporteur views this package as a single, coherent response to a twin challenge: Europe’s over-reliance on non-European payment providers and the need to anchor monetary sovereignty in an open, competitive and innovative market to ensure that Europe possesses its own backbone of payment resilience.

Added:Being this approach the core of the Rapporteur’s proposal, he also addresses several additional concerns regarding the rules, framework and operational aspects of the legislation.

Added:The Rapporteur clarifies the framework under which payment service providers (PSPs) established and supervised in the Union may distribute the digital euro in line with Directive (EU) 2015/2366. PSPs shall offer online and offline digital-euro payment services to residents and businesses in euro-area Member States, and to certain non-resident users, under defined conditions.

Added:Distinct rules apply to the online and offline digital euro. For the online digital euro, PSPs must enable users to fund and defund their digital-euro accounts—manually or automatically—from or to non-digital-euro accounts, offline devices or cash, within limits based on financial stability. For the offline digital euro, PSPs shall provide equivalent functionalities through secure devices, allowing users and merchants to load or redeem balances in line with stability and AML requirements.

Added:The amendments establish an automatic defunding mechanism linking each online digital-euro account to a single non-digital-euro account designated by the user, ensuring compliance with holding limits and continuity of payments. The digital euro distributed by PSPs shall be convertible at par with other forms of euro-denominated money, and users shall maintain a contractual relationship only with PSPs, not with the ECB or national central banks. Users may hold one or several online accounts with the same or different PSPs, and providers must make information on features and conditions publicly available free of charge.

Added:The rapporteur introduces specific holding limits to ensure that the digital euro is serving as a means of payment and it cannot evolve into a store of value. Holding limits, combined with funding and defunding mechanisms, they prevent excessive accumulation while enabling frictionless daily use, safeguarding the banking sector’s intermediation role and financial stability.

Added:Trust also depends on fairness. The Rapporteur sets principles on fees and charges to ensure that PSPs required to distribute the digital euro are fairly compensated while merchants are not overcharged. Since at the time of issuance there will not yet be sufficient information on average unit costs or the total volume of digital-euro transactions, a transition period will be needed. During that period, fees and charges will be based on a “no-worse-off” clause, ensuring a high degree of proportionality by applying criteria comparable to existing means of payment at a granular level.

Added:Moreover, the Rapporteur proposes that if, after a ten-year transition period, it is demonstrated that a cost-based compensation model delivers lower costs, greater efficiency and competition in payment markets, and prevents cross-subsidisation across merchant business models or within the European payments ecosystem, the Commission should propose a new legislative framework on fees and charges for the provision of digital-euro payment services.

Added:The Rapporteur also stresses that citizens will embrace the digital euro only if it protects privacy as effectively as cash protects anonymity. AML/CFT controls shall apply at the user level, not by marking individual digital units, thereby preserving fungibility and preventing programmable or traceable money. The ECB must also ensure that fraud and counterfeiting levels remain below those of comparable instruments. Privacy, security and technological resilience are thus design imperatives, not optional features.

Added:The two accompanying proposals complete this framework. The Regulation on the legal tender of euro banknotes and coins guarantees universal acceptance and access to cash in proportion to citizens’ demand, ensuring financial inclusion and resilience. Its coordination with the digital euro regulation is essential to avoid any perception of substitution. The Regulation on the provision of digital euro services in non-euro-area Member States provides the external dimension, allowing PSPs in those countries to offer digital-euro services under conditions respecting national prerogatives and the integrity of the single market.

Added:In a nutshell, the Rapporteur’s proposal recognises that technological sovereignty in payments cannot be legislated into existence; it must stem from competition, innovation and trust. By prioritising private European infrastructures, the Single Currency Package safeguards both the euro’s stability and Europe’s competitiveness. It modernises the single currency without transforming it into a public payment monopoly.