Brussels, June 23 (Petra) -- The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs approved the long-awaited digital euro draft bill on Tuesday, marking a strategic move by the European Union to reduce its reliance on the dominant United States payment infrastructure.

According to Euro-News, the European Central Bank (ECB) welcomed the legislative milestone in an official statement. The ECB noted that the committee's agreement on the single currency package ensures the continued protection of physical euro cash as legal tender while simultaneously establishing the regulatory framework to shape the digital euro's future implementation.

Under the current proposal, consumers will be permitted to hold digital euros within a dedicated digital wallet, subject to a maximum holding limit that is yet to be determined.

The payment system is designed to support both online and offline transactions while maintaining high privacy standards. According to the blueprint, the ECB will not be able to directly identify individual users from their transactional payment data.

Operationally, the ECB will provide the core back-end infrastructure, while commercial banks and payment service providers will handle direct distribution and customer-facing digital euro services. While financial institutions are expected to receive compensation for operating within the ecosystem, merchants will be charged processing fees that are projected to be significantly lower than those currently imposed by major card networks.

ECB data underscores the strategic drivers behind the project, revealing that US payment giants Visa and Mastercard currently capture 61 percent of all card payments within the eurozone and facilitate nearly all cross-border card transactions across the bloc.

//Petra// AF