EU Council Backs Digital Euro for Both Online and Offline Use
The EU Council has adopted a negotiating position backing a digital euro designed to operate in both online and offline modes, marking a clear shift from the European Parliament’s earlier push for offline-only functionality. The change reflects growing emphasis on usability and resilience — allowing payments when connectivity is limited — while keeping the door open to meet privacy, security and interoperability requirements.
The endorsement sets the stage for trialogue negotiations with the Parliament and the European Commission to reconcile technical and policy trade-offs, including device security, fraud prevention and the role of banks and wallets. For users and businesses, a hybrid design could broaden acceptance and continuity of payments during outages; for policymakers, it raises questions on data protection and implementation cost that will shape the final legislative outcome.