Piero Cipollone, member of the ECB Executive Board, delivered a keynote at the Baltic conference “Payments & Policy in a Changing Environment,” arguing the digital euro is essential to preserve Europeans’ ability to use sovereign money as transactions go increasingly digital.
Cipollone framed the digital euro as an extension of central bank money that would keep legal‑tender choice available across the euro area, strengthen competition for payment services, and support cross‑border scale for European fintechs and banks. He stressed the project’s geopolitical dimension: reduced reliance on non‑European payment schemes protects economic sovereignty and lowers costs for merchants and consumers. Cipollone also highlighted resilience and security features under design: distributed infrastructure across multiple regions, a dedicated ECB digital‑euro app enabling seamless provider switching, and offline functionality to ensure continuity during outages or attacks.