The European Central Bank has suggested granting EU capitals greater authority in the development of a digital euro, potentially paving the way for an agreement on the contentious initiative following a year of stagnation, however opposition to the CBDC remains.

The European Commission has [1] introduced a proposal to national government officials regarding the maximum amount of digital euros permitted in digital wallets. Governments have expressed the desire to have the final authority on this issue, concerned that setting a high limit could encourage consumers to withdraw excessive amounts of digital euros from their banks to store in digital wallets, similar to the withdrawal of physical cash from ATMs. This situation raises fears of potential bank runs and risks to financial stability. The European Central Bank [2] has proposed increasing governments' oversight of essential aspects of the planned digital euro, aiming to resolve a year-long stalemate and facilitate an agreement on the initiative. Christine Lagarde, [3] the President of the European Central Bank said at the press conference, “Digital Europe is not just a means of payment, it is also a political statement concerning the sovereignty of Europe and its capacity to handle payment, including on a cross-border basis, with a European infrastructure and solution.” 

According [4] to Finance Minister Eelco Heinen, the introduction of [5] a digital euro may take place in 2026, following a meeting with his European Union counterparts regarding the topic, the VVD minister emphasized that the content is key to any potential rollout. However he has also warned about potential overreach and privacy issues, “From the outset, we've laid down a number of requirements. Privacy must be guaranteed, and the digital euro must also be usable offline, even in the event of a power or internet outage. Additionally, the digital euro must never be programmable,” said Heinen. “A digital euro must be the same as a regular euro. And with a regular euro, we don't do that either. I'm conducting this discussion from the perspective of financial stability. Because you don't want commercial banks to be drained, so to speak. The digital euro is a means of payment, not a means of saving. We don't want people to put all their savings on their phones. That's what commercial banks are for.”

In a column for the PaymentsJournal Wesley Grant says numerous governments [6] have expressed concerns that this capability may provide the European Central Bank with a means to monitor the citizens of their nations. “Further doubts have been raised about the ECB’s ability to keep the digital euro secure, particularly after an outage at the central bank earlier this year disrupted transactions involving trillions of euros. One of the overriding challenges facing the digital euro is that many lawmakers see little need that would justify the cost of issuing it. This is one of the reasons why many other countries have scrapped plans for a CBDC. Most notably, the Bank of England has paused its work on a digital pound, partly because officials didn’t identify a compelling case for introducing it. By contrast, the EU views the digital euro as more than just a tool for payments.” 

Fernando Navarrete [7] an MEP and member of the Group of the European People's Party, has written an article [8] titled Do we really need a digital euro: A solution to what problem exactly? Questioning the proposed digital euro and warns of financial instability, lost innovation, and privacy risks. Navarrete says the paper will offer a “rational common ground” to discuss the proposal for a digital euro. “The other consubstantial problem with retail CBDCs is their reduced privacy compared to cash. This characteristic is shared by almost all digital payment methods. But crucially for some citizens, in the case of CBDCs, users do not voluntarily choose which provider to trust, it is necessarily the public authorities. Public consultations consistently demonstrate that privacy is the foremost concern among EU citizens when considering a digital currency. Many people fear that the ECB or public authorities in general could monitor transactions, even indirectly, undermining individual autonomy or an erosion of civil liberties. Cash provides a level of non-traceability and anonymity that a centrally managed ledger cannot match even with pseudo-anonymization techniques,” said Navarrete.