ECB says Lagarde's exit will not delay the digital euro as Brussels negotiates the law

Christine Lagarde's early exit as president of the European Central Bank will not hold up the digital euro, an ECB official said on Tuesday at the Web Summit in Lisbon, one of Europe's largest technology conferences. Alessandro Giovannini, adviser to the programme manager of the digital euro project, pointed to the pilot starting next year and a commitment by EU lawmakers to agree the law by the end of the year. "I'm not afraid that any change or anything will impact it, because this is a strategic project," Giovannini stated at a panel moderated by Euronews, calling the digital euro "a European project" rather than the ECB's alone.

Lagarde announced last month that she would step down on 7 February 2027, almost nine months early. Germany's Isabel Schnabel also departs the six-member Executive Board, the ECB's top management team, in January, and chief economist Philip Lane's mandate expires in May. As Euronews previously reported, Spain's Pablo Hernández de Cos and the Netherlands' Klaas Knot are currently the two main candidates to succeed Lagarde.

Final stretch in BrusselsIn March, EU leaders called for negotiations on the digital euro law to be concluded by the end of this year, ahead of the pilot programme scheduled for 2027. "This is the commitment that we have from the co-legislators," Giovannini said, meaning the European Parliament and EU governments. The two sides have been in trilogues, three-way negotiations with the European Commission that form the last stage of EU law-making, since July.

The latest round was last Thursday, and Ireland, which chairs the talks for member states, is reportedly aiming for a deal on 18 November. How the fees merchants pay are calculated, part of the digital euro's business model, is one of the issues still unresolved. This is significant, as the ECB aims to be ready for a first issuance in 2029, while technical preparations are progressing independently of the ongoing discussions in Brussels.

In July, the ECB picked 36 banks and payment firms, including Deutsche Bank, UniCredit and Stripe, for a 12-month pilot starting in the second half of 2027. Last month, it chose network providers, including payments firm Nexi and telecoms group Telefónica, to connect them to its platform. The first pilot transactions will come "in less than one year", Giovannini said, adding that the firms building the system were all "European companies controlled by other European companies".

Banks will not pay for the shared infrastructure, as Giovannini explained it would be "paid by the ECB" and "offered for free by the ECB to everyone". The ECB has estimated development will cost around €1. 3 billion before a first issuance, and running the system about €320 million a year from 2029, costs that eurozone central banks would bear, as with banknotes.