Digital euro could be introduced in 2026, said Dutch Finance Minister

In the "most ambitious scenario," the digital euro could be introduced in 2026, said caretaker Finance Minister Eelco Heinen In Copenhagen on Friday. After a meeting with his European Union counterparts on the matter, the VVD minister said "the content is key" to any such introduction.

Although the ministers reached a compromise on the issue on Friday, several essential issues still need to be worked out before the Netherlands will agree to the digital euro's introduction, Heinen told ANP. The Netherlands has always been at the forefront of the digital euro debate, he continued.

"From the outset, we've laid down a number of requirements." Privacy must be guaranteed, and the digital euro must also be usable offline, even in the event of a power or internet outage. Additionally, the digital euro must "never be programmable," Heinen added.

If it were, the government would be able to dictate how people spend their money. "That would be a nightmare, and I would never agree to that," he said.

"A digital euro must be the same as a regular euro. And with a regular euro, we don't do that either."

Heinen recently said that there should also be a limit on how many digital euros someone can have in their digital wallet. "I'm conducting this discussion from the perspective of financial stability. Because you don't want commercial banks to be drained, so to speak," the minister clarified.

"The digital euro is a means of payment, not a means of saving. We don't want people to put all their savings on their phones. That's what commercial banks are for." The height of the limit will be discussed further in the near future.

The digital euro will eventually be issued by the European Central Bank (ECB).