A vote on the digital euro could come within the first half of 2026.
However, it’s not clear whether the project will win the backing of a majority of the European Parliament, the Financial Times (FT) reported Monday (Jan. 5), with one official telling the news outlet that the vote “could really go down to the wire.”
To convince the plan’s skeptics, the European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a public relations campaign in hopes of issuing its first central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2029 after a pilot next year, the FT said.
According to the report, left-leaning members of the European parliament support the plan but are more than 40 votes short of clinching an absolute majority. The far right opposes it and views are divided within other parties, the FT added.
“Building a majority will prove difficult,” German EPP MEP Markus Ferber, who is skeptical about the ECB’s plans, told the FT, adding that “positions differ widely.”
The report notes that Fernando Navarrete, a Spanish minister appointed by parliament to assess the digital euro, has argued for a scaled-down version of the coin used solely for offline use for person-to-person payments.
