Banca d'Italia took part in 'The Digital Euro: a Political and Strategic Choice for Europe' conference

6 May 2026

Banca d'Italia took part in the conference on 'The Digital Euro: a Political and Strategic Choice for Europe', organized by the Italian Banking Association (ABI) at the European Parliament's premises in Brussels.

The European Central Bank and European Commission also participated, as did several parliamentary groups, namely The Left, EPP, S&D, ECR, Renew Europe and Greens/EFA.

The conference provided an opportunity to review the progress made on and to push for the approval of the Regulation on the digital euro, currently being discussed by the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON). Completion of the legislative process by 2026 is crucial in order to meet the overall project timeline, which envisages potentially issuing the digital euro in 2029. Discussions during the event highlighted the significant progress that has been made, in particular the increasing convergence on the key elements of the text by the political groups, confirming that there has indeed been forward motion on the project.

Marco Pieroni, Head of the Digital Euro Unit at Banca d'Italia, spoke at the conference and explained the Bank's role in managing critical payment infrastructures for the Eurosystem - including TIPS, the service for instant payments in central bank money. This experience has provided a sound foundation for contributing to the development of the digital euro platform. Banca d'Italia is part of the group of central banks responsible for the design and future operation of the platform. On the infrastructure side, Pieroni confirmed that one of the digital euro's data centres will be located and managed in Italy.