The European Commission put forward a proposal to ensure that citizens and businesses can continue to access and pay with euro banknotes and coins across the euro area. The main objective of the proposal is to safeguard euro cash as a means of payment so that people will continue to be able to use it for their payments if they so wish. Indeed, although the use of cash has declined, the 2022 ECB SPACE study confirms that it still represents 59% of the number of retail payment transactions and 42% of the value
of these transactions. Additionally, 60% of European consumers consider it important to keep the option to pay by cash. The full name of the legislative proposal is “Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the legal tender of euro banknotes and coins”, the full text of the legislation is available here.
Intergraf welcomes the proposal as it shows that printed banknotes continue to play a major role for
citizens. The proposal will also set out a framework for a possible new digital form of the euro as a
complement to cash.
The initiative will now be discussed in the European Parliament and in the Council of the European Union
before its final adoption.
Source – Intergraf July 2023