This week, here in Strasbourg, the granting of a mandate for negotiations with the Council on the digital euro dossier will be discussed. As rapporteur for the opinion in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, I worked precisely in the part with the protection of personal data, the fight against money laundering, etc. - what is within the scope of this committee. And I can tell you that there is a lot of speculation with the digital euro. Let us first say - with the adoption of the digital euro, we will in no way threaten cash. This was said by the MEP from GERB/EPP Emil Radev.
Cash will remain. Cash payments will not be banned in any way. There are explicit texts of this kind in the dossier.
Any attempts to threaten cash payments have been dropped from the Parliament's texts. What I mean is that at the moment, Parliament's position is absolutely in favor of preserving cash payments. With the creation of the digital euro, the European Union will create its own payment system, so that it is guaranteed by the European Central Bank, so that we are not dependent on the payment systems of third countries.
In order to be competitive, we must provide three payment methods - cash payments, card payments and payments with digital euros.
In the digital euro, there will be two payment options. - online payment and offline payment. What I mean is that offline payment is practically when I bring my phone closer to yours and transfer 100 euros, I will leave exactly the same trace as when I hand you a 100 euro banknote. In short, there will be completely anonymous payments, and payments with the digital euro will be so well protected as personal data that even the European Central Bank will have very minimal information about these payments.
Payments will mainly be in payment intermediaries. In short, they will be protected in the same way that bank secrecy is currently protected and it will only be able to reveal the secret of payments when it comes to serious crimes. From now on, we are simply giving the European payment system much greater competitiveness.
This is not a cryptocurrency. It will be guaranteed by the European Central Bank. The value of the digital euro will be the same as the value of the euro in cash.
Here, the European Central Bank guarantees this payment system, the digital euro, so we will have a very secure method of payment. But I want to say that there will be limits. This does not mean that we will be able to pay hundreds, thousands and millions.
Most likely, the limit for payments with digital euros will be up to 3,000 euros. This limit is a matter of negotiation. So we will not jeopardize deposits in any way, we will not jeopardize cash payments, we will simply provide a new alternative.
In principle, as with euros, payments can also be made in foreign countries, as long as the given country allows it. We are talking about the countries of the eurozone here, but this will also be a legal tender everywhere in the world.
Those who have chosen to receive payments at the post office will receive them as they have until now. Anyone who has chosen to pay by bank account and use a bank card will be able to top up their wallet at any ATM with digital euros and make payments with their phone, whether online or offline, so all of this will be at the discretion of the given citizen as to what to use as a payment method.
Everything remains as it is until now. If we want to use this tool additionally, we can use it. If we do not want to use the digital euro, no one can oblige us to use it.
And when we talk, we are talking here about perhaps many more years of negotiations until we get to the introduction of the digital euro. Secondly, we are giving the opportunity for it to be introduced with a regulatory framework. From there on, when the ECB will decide to introduce this digital euro after the adoption of this legislation, is also a decision that will probably take many years, because we need to have the entire digital infrastructure to introduce this payment mechanism. From here on, when will we reach negotiations, when will we reach compromises, when will this regulatory act come into force and when will the European Central Bank, after its adoption, decide to introduce the digital euro, all this could take many years to come. I cannot predict at this time.
Cash will remain, the payment methods that have been in place until now will be absolutely valid for many years, so the digital euro will provide an additional opportunity and competitiveness for the member states in the European Union and of course lower fees for citizens.