How the introduction of the digital Euro may jeopardise the financial autonomy of its citizens

In October 2021, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) introduced the world to its investigation into the creation of its own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) - the digital euro. This project was marketed as a step towards modernising Europe's financial system and was framed as a reaction to the growing influence and “threat”  of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. The digital euro would be a "safe, government-backed" currency created to guarantee monetary sovereignty and give citizens a dependable digital payment option, according to the ECB's official website. However, hidden under the ECB’s seeming transparency lies a disturbing truth: the digital euro may mark the end of financial privacy in Europe and in turn pave a path of unprecedented monetary control within the union. 

  The ECB sees the digital euro as a retail CBDC, which will be accessible to its citizens through commercial banks and fintechs in an “intermediate model”. The digital euro is not a cryptocurrency and it doesn’t rely on blockchain decentralisation. Instead, it centralises its power: the ECB said that it would issue and guarantee every unit, with commercial intermediaries (as mentioned above) being the distributors. As of October 2025, the ECB is finishing its preparatory phase by selecting service providers and finalising the legal framework, ready for rollout. The stated aim of the project is to “complement cash,” providing a digital option for payments made across the euro area. However, given Europe’s rapid decline in cash usage (from 79% in 2015 to under 50% by 2023 of transactions being made in cash), this “complement” seems to be more of a replacement, which will come sooner than the public realises. 

  Although the ECB’s justifications may sound noble - promoting financial inclusion, strengthening European sovereignty and reducing dependence on American and Chinese tech companies like PayPal, Apple Pay and Alipay - the arguments mask a different underlying political motive: to consolidate financial data of its citizens within a state-controlled infrastructure. Every online payment made through the digital euro will be fully traceable, due to the ECB’s anti-laundering and KYC regulations. “Offline” payments are also promised to have a “cash-like” level of privacy, but are only offered for low-value transactions, meaning that the rest will be recorded, stored and potentially accessible to public authorities. While the ECB insists that the digital euro will “never be programmable money” (Programmable money is digital money with built-in rules that dictate when, how, and for what purpose it moves, often powered by smart contracts on a blockchain) it also allows for “conditional payments” which is a euphemism that introduces the government’s capacity to restrict or even to monitor spending. 

  Once this kind of financial infrastructure will begin to exist, it will almost be impossible to restrain. History shows that any technology that is said to have been built for “security” or “efficiency” eventually will become a tool for surveillance and control. In my opinion, the digital euro will be no exception. With the ability to monitor every transaction in real time, governments will gain a lever of power that no democracy has possessed or should possess, it being the power to decide how citizens spend their own money. What may begin as an act of precaution against crime will soon turn into a mechanism for social engineering, where the access to one’s finances could be restricted for the name of “public interest.”

  The ECB reassures the public that these features will never be exploited or used inappropriately, but the issue is not their intent, it is their capability. Once programmable infrastructure and total traceability takes its place in the economy, all it takes is a minor “political crisis”, one “emergency”, one populist government for financial autonomy to vanish overnight. If the state can switch off your wallet, it can do the same to your incompliance. 

  What makes this project even more concerning to me is that it will not be imposed with force, but through its offered convenience. People will blindly adopt the digital euro because it will be faster, cleaner and embedded into every app. Over time, cash will not be banned, but instead will fade out of existence due to its seeming lack of utility. The disappearance of coins and notes may seem trivial, but it will represent the loss of the last unmonitored space in the European economy, which is the right to private transactions. Once that disappears, privacy itself will become a privilege and not a right. 

  Those who advocate for the digital euro claim that it will strengthen European sovereignty, but sovereignty without freedom is hollow. By trying to protect Europe from extensive external dependence, the ECB risks creating internal dependence on an institution that no citizen elected and no voter holds accountable. The centralisation of money will lead to the centralisation of power and once power is concentrated, it rarely disperses voluntarily (as history has shown us on multiple previous occasions). 

  In essence, the digital euro is not the next chapter of European modernisation; it is the quiet change in the relationship between state and citizen. It will redefine trust, not as something that is granted to the individual, but something that is demanded by the institution. Under the ECB’s rhetoric of “innovation” a project that threatens to turn economic participation into an act that has to be permitted is hidden. Europe now stands at a crossroad where it could either pursue convenience or it could preserve liberty, but it will not be able to do both.