On Tuesday, the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee adopted its position on the single currency package, consisting of three files. The one on the establishment of the digital euro was adopted by 43 votes to 14, with 1 abstention.

The digital euro would be a new, electronic form of money issued by the European Central Bank (ECB) and would work online and offline. Online payments would be processed through an account-based system, while offline payments would work directly via local storage devices. The offline functionality would be equivalent to using physical cash, as losing the device would mean losing the offline money with no refund possible.

Privacy

Privacy-by-design and privacy-by-default principles would be built into the digital euro. Cutting-edge technologies, such as “zero-knowledge proofs”, would allow transactions to be verified without exposing personal data, which would be processed only to the extent strictly necessary for the system to function. The ECB…