Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
It is my pleasure to return to Masters of Digital for its 2026 edition.
Digital innovation is reshaping every aspect of our economies, societies, and daily lives.
The EU must seize the opportunities unleashed by this transition to drive growth, competitiveness and prosperity.
At last week's AI Summit in India, the EU signed a Leaders Declaration acknowledging AI's role as a driver for economic growth and social good.
Our AI Continent Action Plan sets out how Europe can make the most of the strategic technology of the 21st century by investing in large-scale computing infrastructure, improving access to data, accelerating AI adoption in strategic sectors, and strengthening AI skills and talent.
At the same time, we are simplifying our rules to embrace the digital age.
Last November's Digital Omnibus was a first step in our simplification efforts in the digital domain.
It could result in at least €1 billion in annual savings for our businesses, public administrations and citizens by making our rules more practical and consistent.
But today, I would like to focus on another important project whose time has now come: the digital euro.
More and more Europeans are choosing to pay digitally.
The share of cash payments in the euro area between 2019 and 2024 dropped from 72% to 52% at the point of sale.
I imagine that many of you in the audience are not even carrying cash.
Yet, we lack a genuine European digital means of payment to fill the space left behind by this decline in the use of cash.
So, our currency must also adapt to keep up.
Of course, we are not seeking to replace cash.
Euro coins and banknotes are not going anywhere.
In fact, we are going to protect and preserve their role.
Our Single Currency Package will ensure individuals and businesses can continue to access and pay with euro banknotes and coins across the euro area.
But we do need a system complementing physical cash with its digital equivalent.
We must ensure that public money satisfies the evolving needs of Europeans.
This is not just about convenience for European consumers.
The digital euro guarantees central bank money remains available and usable in today's digital world.
It reinforces the euro's role as the trusted anchor of our monetary system.
The digital euro will also reinforce the EU's strategic autonomy.
We are continually adapting to a less stable and more challenging geopolitical environment where dependencies are becoming vulnerabilities.
This is evident, for example, in our determined push to derisk, diversify and strengthen our trade network.
We must also limit our exposure in other domains.
No area is more critical than our financial and payments infrastructure.
It is the circulatory system of the European economy.
Today, our payments landscape is highly dominated by non-European providers.
Almost two-thirds of card-based transactions in the euro area are carried out by non-European companies.
Thirteen euro area countries rely entirely on international card schemes for card transactions.
The annual transaction volume represents trillions of euro.
So, we are highly dependent on foreign-owned companies.
European payments systems may become subject to threats to withdraw or changes to the services provided by these international providers.
This imposes real constraints on our capacity to defend our interests and values.
The EU must act to ensure its citizens and businesses have access to a resilient payment infrastructure.
When it comes to services of such critical strategic importance, there simply must be a European alternative.
And the digital euro is part of the solution.
It is a European public good that is fundamental to strengthening our digital and monetary sovereignty.
The digital euro is also crucial to spur competition and innovation.
It is not intended to compete with, or replace, private payment solutions.
It will provide a complementary solution.
Its open access standards will be made available to the private sector.
This will enable them to build innovative payment solutions on top of the digital euro.
It will also facilitate something that's all too often missing when we speak about European innovation: scale.
It will enable private payment providers to expand their services seamlessly across national borders within the EU.
In doing so, it will foster innovation and competition in the retail payments market that will benefit consumers, merchants and payment service providers alike.
So, the digital euro is not just an insurance policy against the dangers of dependency.
It provides the foundation for innovative European alternatives that can push every actor in the payments ecosystem to raise its game.
Turning to privacy.
The digital euro will provide cash-like privacy in the digital world for offline payments and a high degree of privacy for online payments.
In doing so, it strikes the right balance between citizens' legitimate request for privacy in payments and the need to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and fraud risks.
Let me state one important principle: for the digital euro to succeed – and most importantly for its legal tender status to be effective – we need that the online and offline features of the digital euro are implemented from the beginning.
This is in line with the European Parliament's vote on 10 February.
Payment service providers, merchants and consumers need clarity and predictability to plan for the issuance of digital euro.
To conclude, ladies and gentlemen,
At the beginning of my remarks, I referred to how the digital transition has changed every aspect of our lives.
That even extends to how we express ourselves.
I am sure that you are all familiar with the term FOMO, the fear of missing out.
Europe did not reap the full benefits of the first wave of the digital revolution.
We are still paying the price for this.
In fact, the productivity gap between the EU and the US is largely explained by the tech sector.
At this critical juncture, Europe cannot afford to miss out on the opportunities presented by the next wave of digitalisation.
The digital euro is an important part of this puzzle.
Making it a reality would send the clearest signal: Europe is ready to claim its place in the digital age.
Thank you.
