ECB’s Cipollone Warns Digital Euro 2029 Launch at Risk Without Legislation

The digital euro's fate now hinges less on technical readiness than on the EU's legislative calendar, and Cipollone's warning makes that dependency explicit. The sequencing is notable: a pilot precedes any issuance decision, meaning the project can advance operationally while its legal foundation remains unresolved. The sovereignty argument — reducing reliance on foreign payment providers — is the ECB's core justification, and it is being used to pressure negotiators. Whether EU lawmakers deliver by year-end is the open question, and any slippage would test how much of the 2029 timeline is genuinely fixed.