The European Central Bank is preparing for the digital euro, and a Dutch minister is calling for strict guarantees.
The Netherlands may witness the arrival of the digital euro as early as 2026, according to interim Finance Minister Ilko Heinen. He confirmed during his speech in Copenhagen after talks with his EU counterparts that the success of the project will depend on its content and the accompanying guarantees. While the ministers reached a settlement during the meeting, there are still fundamental issues that need to be resolved before the Netherlands can give its full support to this initiative.
The Dutch government has always been at the forefront of the discussion about the digital euro. Ilko Heinen explained that privacy protection must be fully guaranteed, and the digital euro should work even offline, in case of internet or power outages. Most importantly, he emphasized that it should not be 'programmable.' Allowing governments to control how citizens spend their money would be a 'nightmare' and unacceptable.
The Minister of Finance confirmed that the digital euro must be identical to the traditional euro in all aspects. He said: "With the regular euro, we do not impose spending restrictions. The same principle should apply here."
He also called for limits on the amount of digital euro that individuals can hold in their digital wallets. He explained that this is necessary to protect financial stability and prevent commercial banks from losing their deposits. He added: "The digital euro is intended for payments, not for savings. We do not want people to convert all their savings into their phones. That is the role of commercial banks." The value of this limit is set to be discussed in more depth in the coming months.
Ultimately, the European Central Bank (ECB) will be the entity responsible for issuing the digital euro. Until then, the Netherlands insists on the need for strong guarantees before supporting the launch of the project.