(Finance) – Piero Cipollone, the Italian representative on the Executive Committee of the ECB has returned to plead the cause for the creation of a digital euro, on which the Frankfurt institution is committed. “Money is crucial to sovereignty,” circumstance “even more so in the digital age. Some 63 countries today are operating, driving, developing or exploring digital central bank currencies (CBDCs)”Cipollone said during an event organized by the Central Bank of Austria.
“In the meantime, the major private payment systems are expanding globally, some nations may even try to leverage crypto assets, with exponents such as the presidential candidate in the United States, Donald Trump, who promises to make the USA a Bitcoin superpower”. According to Cipollone “in this rapidly evolving context, Europe cannot remain still. The role of the ECB in issuing a currency that is accepted in the currency area is particularly crucial in a monetary union where market payments remain fragmented across national borders.”
“At the ECB – he continued – we are committed to ensuring that we can continue to use cash in Europe. However, we do not want to stand by and watch while people are unable to use central bank money for their digital transactions. Bringing central bank money into a digitalized world via the digital euro would safeguard our monetary sovereignty.”