Digital currency

The variety of means of payment in circulation has increased significantly as a result of digitalisation. In the digital age, physical central bank money – that is, cash in the form of coins and banknotes – will not be sufficient on its own to keep pace with evolving digital payment processes. At the same time, the transformation processes associated with the introduction of digital central bank money have a massive impact on the economy and society and also place immense demands on the respective monetary and currency systems to adapt.

The research project aims to actively monitor and conduct a legal analysis of the ongoing EU legislative and implementation process regarding the digital euro. With the legislative package proposed on 28 June 2023, the European Commission aims to supplement physical cash with a digital form – the digital euro – in order to safeguard the relationship between central bank money and private digital means of payment. Functional design and technical implementation have been entrusted to the European Central Bank, which, as the guardian of the eurozone’s monetary policy, will play a central role in the further development process. The key questions guiding the research project concern both the appropriate legal foundations for the digital euro and specific aspects of its functional design and legal nature, and offer points of intersection particularly with digitalisation, payment transactions, data protection and monetary stability.