Europe has just taken a major step toward creating the digital euro, a project that could soon open the door to leaving Europeans’ financial freedom at the mercy of Brussels.
On Thursday, July 9th, the European Parliament’s plenary adopted a text on the creation of the EU’s own CBDC (central bank digital currency), sending the file to the final stage of interinstitutional negotiations before the digital euro’s planned issuance from January 2029.
Unsurprisingly, the file was primarily backed by members of the ‘Ursula-coalition’—the centrist EPP, the socialist S&D, the liberal Renew, and the Greens—as well as the far-left, while only the national conservative parties (PfE, ECR, ESN) voted against it.
In the end, the digital euro was approved with 416 votes in favor and 169 votes against.
The question now moves to trilogue negotiations between the Council, the Parliament, and the Commission, which plan to finalize the details by the end of this year. The European Central Bank (ECB) will then launch a limited pilot in 2027, before full EU-wide launch in 2029.
Brussels has long been presenting the project as a tool to strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy and reduce dependence on American giants such as Visa and Mastercard. The Commission insists that the digital euro would not replace but exist alongside cash, issued directly by the ECB, and accessible through digital wallets managed by banks and payment service providers.
However, critics both among the Brussels opposition and among data privacy experts have been sounding the alarm for months, warning that the digital euro could soon become a powerful tool of financial surveillance and control.
Ahead of the vote, Flemish Patriots’ (PfE) MEP Gerolf Annemans noted that despite the ECB repeatedly stated that it would only process aggregate (and not personal) data to monitor money supply, and insisted that the digital euro would never become a ‘programmable currency’ like in China—with potential expiry dates to limit savings and restrictions on what it could be spent on—, these safeguards have quietly disappeared from the Parliament’s final text.
“A programmable currency is not simply an additional means of payment; it is a powerful weapon in the hands of those who set the rules. Whereas cash enables free and unconditional transactions, this system would create a new reality in which what, when, and where people buy or sell could ultimately become subject to political control,” Annemans warned.
“No one who values freedom and privacy should be willing to sign such a blank cheque,” he added, calling the digital euro “a powerful instrument of financial surveillance.”
Tamás Orbán is a political journalist for europeanconservative.com, based in Brussels. Born in Transylvania, he studied history and international relations in Kolozsvár, and worked for several political research institutes in Budapest. His interests include current affairs, social movements, geopolitics, and Central European security. On Twitter, he is @TamasOrbanEC.
