19
Apr
2023
Watch
Digital euro (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner McGuinness, first of all I would like to thank you for presenting today the Commission's proposal, or what you think should be a digital euro. It is also important to stress to the citizens of the European Union that this is actually the first debate we have in the European Parliament on the digital euro, and it certainly does not mean its introduction, nor that we agree or disagree with it, but it is really a debate. We are really seeing the growth of cryptocurrencies around the world, and this is actually our answer to that. But is it really enough for us that it's because everyone does it, will we do it too? I think it has been said many times in today's debate that we need a clear definition of what makes the digital euro better than the euro we use, so that we can actually explain it to the citizens of the European Union. It is also very clearly important for our political group that the digital euro is safe, easy to use, deposit protection and the protection of users of this currency, as well as the protection of buyers, and especially their privacy, when they use this euro. So I see positively that we are discussing it, but we should definitely define what the added value really is and why we are going to use it, why we are going to use it and whether our citizens will really perceive it positively. This is certainly important, because we as politicians can have an opinion, but citizens are the ones who will use it.