Public consultation on digital euro
On 12 October 2020, the European Central Bank (ECB) published a questionnaire on the digital euro on its website, for public consultation. It was completed by a record number of respondents. Approximately 5% of the responses came from the Netherlands, putting it in the top 4 of respondents per country.
The public consultation is not a representative study, but the high number of responses shows that citizens, businesses and stakeholders are all keen to share their thoughts on the digital euro. In the Netherlands, 405 citizens and 39 professional parties completed the questionnaire. This helps the Eurosystem gain more insight into topics such as user requirements, the role of private parties, functionalities and interoperability.
DNB is closely involved in analysing the 8,221 responses. An initial analysis shows that privacy is mentioned most often as an important aspect in the design of a digital euro, followed by security and a pan-European scope. The ECB is expected to publish a comprehensive analysis of the results later this spring. Mid-2021, the Eurosystem central banks will jointly decide whether they wish to go ahead with the next research phase, which would look into the potential requirements for a digital euro, as well as its design. The insights gained from the public consultation will play an important role in this decision.
See the ECB website for more information on the digital euro.