In October 2021, the Eurosystem kicked off the “digital euro” project with a two-year investigation phase. The outcome of this phase was a design concept for a digital euro, which was used as the basis for a legislative proposal by the European Commission on 28 June 2023. 

In mid-October 2023, the ECB Governing Council decided to move to the next two-year stage of the project – the preparation phase. This phase involved: 

1.  pressing ahead with development of a digital euro scheme rulebook;
2. selecting providers for digital euro components and related services;
3. providing an innovation platform for testing with market participants;
4. tasking the Euro Retail Payments Board with investigating how the digital euro would fit into the European payments ecosystem.

On 1 November 2025, the Eurosystem entered the next phase of the digital euro project, which is aimed at preparing the Eurosystem for the potential issuance of the digital euro in the course of 2029.

This phase involves testing the possible infrastructure. In addition, requirements in areas such as user experience, data protection, financial inclusion and environmental impact will be worked out in more detail. As before, this will take place in close consultation with the public, market participants and all stakeholders involved.

In parallel to this, the EU institutions are working on drawing up a legal framework for the digital euro based on the European Commission’s legislative proposal from June 2023. The proposal is currently going through the legislative process in the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. This process is expected to be concluded at the end of 2026. The ECB must take any additional requests from the legislators into account when designing the digital euro. This means that the digital euro can only be issued once the legislative procedure has been completed and the digital euro law is in place.

Pilot exercise

At the end of October 2025, the Governing Council of the ECB announced the transition to the next phase of the digital euro project.

As part of this phase, preparations are being made for a pilot exercise designed to ensure the technical readiness of the digital euro. The pilot exercise, involving selected payment service providers (PSPs) and merchants, is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2027. The aim is to gain insights into operational, technical, and user-related aspects and to lay the groundwork for a potential first issuance of the digital euro during 2029. Assuming that the legal framework is adopted by the end of 2026, a soft launch of the digital euro would follow the pilot exercise.

The Eurosystem conducted a call for expressions of interest among interested payment service providers for the pilot exercise. The list of payment service providers selected for the pilot exercise, as well as further information, can be found on the websites linked below.